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DOGMATIC THEOLOGY
THE POHLE-PREUSS SERIES OF DOGMATIC TEXT-BOOKS
1. God: His Knowability, Essence and Attributes, vi & 479 pp., $2.00 net.
2. The Divine Trinity, iv & 297 pp., $1.50
net.
3. God the Author of Nature and the Supernatural, v & 365 pp., $1.75 net.
4. Christology. iii & 310 pp., $1.50 net.
5. Soteriology.
6. Mariology. (In Press.)
OTHER VOLUMES TO FOLLOW IN COURSE OF TIME :
7. Grace: Actual and Habitual.
8. The Sacraments in General.
Baptism. Confirmation.
9. The Holy Eucharist.
10. The Sacrament of Penance.
11. Extreme Unction. Holy Orders. Matrimony.
12. Eschatology.
& ii. 3 "
Mau, fjl
SOTERIOLOGY
A DOGMATIC TREATISE ON THEREDEMPTION
BY
THE REVEREND JOSEPH POHLE, PH.D., D.D.
FORMERLY PROFESSOR OF FUNDAMENTAL THEOLOGY IN THECATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA, NOW PROFESSOR OF
DOGMA IN THE UNIVERSITY OF BRESLAU
AUTHORIZED ENGLISH VERSION, BASED ON THE FIFTHGERMAN EDITION, WITH SOME ABRIDGEMENT
AND ADDED REFERENCES
BY
ARTHUR PREUSS
ST. LOUIS, MO., 1914
PUBLISHED BY B. HERDER
17 SOUTH BROADWAY
FREIBURG (BADEN)GERMANY
LONDON, W. C.
68, GREAT RUSSELL STR.
!MAY 2 1 1943
NIHIL OBSTAT.
Sti. Ludovici, die 25. Sept., 1913.
F. Q. HOLWECK,Censor Librorum.
IMPRIMATUR.
Sti. LuJovici, die 26. Sept., 1913.
fJOANNES J. GLENNON,
Archiepiscopus Sti. Ludovici.
Copyright, 1913,
by
JOSEPH GUMMERSBACH.
All rights reserved.
BECKTOLDPRINTING AND BOOK MFG. CO.
ST. LOUIS, MO.
TABLE OF CONTENTSPAGE
INTRODUCTION i
PART I. THE WORK OF REDEMPTION 3 if
Prefatory Remarks 3
CH. I. Christ s Mediatorship as a Condition of Our Re- 5
demption 5
i. The Possibility of the Redemption 5
2. Congruity and Necessity of the Redemption . 13
3. Predestination of the Redeemer 24
CH. II. The Redemption of the Human Race ThroughChrist s Vicarious Atonement 35
i. The Reality of Christ s Vicarious Atonement . . 35
ART. i. Vicarious Atonement Defined .... 35
ART. 2. The Dogma of Christ s Vicarious Atone
ment Proved From Revelation 41
2. The Properties of Christ s Vicarious Atonement 60
ART. i. Intrinsic Perfection of the Atonement . 60
ART. 2. Extrinsic Perfection or Universality of the
Atonement 75
3. The Concrete Realization of Christ s Vicarious
Atonement 84
ART. i. Christ s Death on the Cross 85
ART. 2. Christ s Descent Into Hell 91
ART. 3. The Resurrection 101
PART II. THE THREE OFFICES OF THE REDEEMER . . . .no SCH. I. Christ s Priesthood in
i. Christ s Death a True Sacrifice in2. Christ a True Priest 127
CH. II. Christ s Prophetical Office 140
CH. III. Christ s Kingship 149
INTRODUCTION
Christology deals with the Person of our Di
vine Redeemer; Soteriology (*& rf* <TOTW Aoyos)
considers the object for which He came into this
world. This object was the Redemption of the
human race.
Christ became our Redeemer or Mediator
solely by His vicarious atonement, therefore, re
demption (mediation) and vicarious atonement
are interchangeable terms.
The fallen race of Adam was not simply re
stored as a whole to its original state of bliss. In
order to share in the graces of the Redemptioneach individual human being must co-operate
with the Redeemer. To be able to do this manneeds ( i ) a teacher, who authoritatively instructs
him in the truths necessary for salvation; (2) a
priest who effectively applies to him the merits of
the atonement; and (3) a king or shepherd, who,
by the promulgation of suitable laws and pre
cepts, guides him on the way to Heaven.
Hence our Divine Lord exercises a threefold
function or office, namely (i) that of Teacher,
(2) that of High Priest, and (3) that of King1
/
,P
2 INTRODUCTION
or Shepherd. Cfr. John XIV, 6: "I am the
way (King), and the truth (Teacher), and the
life (Priest)."
Soteriology, therefore, naturally falls into two
main divisions: I. The Work of Redemption;II. The Three Offices of the Redeemer e
PART I
THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
PREFATORY REMARKS
The Redemption could not have been effected
by a mediator who was either mere God or mere
man. It required one who was both God and
man. Christ, alone, being both God and man,was in a position to act as natural and moral
mediator and to reconcile the human race to its
Creator.
We have shown in a previous treatise that
Christology1
is founded on the doctrine of the
Hypostatic Union. Similarly, Soteriology turns
on the pivotal concept of the mediatorship of
Christ and may be said to be implicitly contained
in 2 Cor. V, 19: "God indeed was in Christ,
reconciling the world to himself."
We have, therefore, to consider: (Ch. I), the
mediatorship of Christ, the possibility of the Re
demption, its congruity and necessity, and, by wayof a corollary, the highly interesting questionwhether or not the Incarnation was absolutely
i Pohle-Preuss, Christology, A Dogmatic Treatise on the Incarnation, St.
Louis 1913.
4 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
preordained; (Ch. II), the fact of the Redemption, its reality, its properties, and the concrete
mode of its realization. In connection with the
last-mentioned point we shall also treat (Ch. Ill)
of Christ s Descent into hell and His Resurrec
tion from the soteriological point of view.
CHAPTER I
CHRIST S MEDIATORSHIP AS A CONDITION OF OUR
REDEMPTION
SECTION i
THE POSSIBILITY OF THE REDEMPTION
I. DEFINITION OF THE TERM "MEDIATOR."
A mediator (mediator, i*<rinp)is one who holds
a neutral position between parties at variance,
and is therefore apt to interpose between them
as the equal friend of each.
a) Thus, in the political domain, a neutral
government sometimes intervenes between quar
relling powers by proffering its friendly offices as
arbitrator.
The notion of a mediator, therefore, comprises
two distinct elements, viz.: (i) The exist
ence of two extremes in contrary opposition,
and (2) a quality or characteristic proper to him
who interposes, which enables him to reconcile
the parties at variance.
This is the true Catholic notion of mediatorship. There
is also an heretical one, which appears in the religious
5
6 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
systems of the Gnostics and the Arians. To exalt the
Creator of the universe as far as possible above mere
matter, which they regarded as intrinsically evil, the
Gnostics invented a series of"
intermediate beings,"
which they called aeons, and which were supposed to
bridge the gap between the Godhead and the material
world. The last of these in a descending line was the
so-called Demiurge, who as creator of the material uni
verse was believed to be the proper mediator between the
absolute Being and the physical cosmos. 2 The Arians
regarded the Logos as the most exalted of creatures and
as creator of all the rest, and ascribed to him the office
of mediator between God the Father and the universe
created by the Logos. We have already disproved this
error by showing, in our treatises on the Divine Trinity3
and the Incarnation,4that, so far from being a creature,
the Logos is true God, consubstantial (fyoowios) with
the Father.
b) A duly qualified mediator may exercise his
functions either in the moral or in the ontological
order.5 In some manner or other moral always
presupposes ontological mediation, and hence the
one cannot be conceived apart from the other.
To perform the part of a moral mediator one mustbe able, either by one s natural powers, or through the
instrumentality of grace, to reconcile opposing extremes
in the order of being. Hence the distinction between
2 For a refutation of this dualistic Trinity, pp. 49 sqq., St. Louis 1912.error see Pohle-Preuss, God the An- 4 Cfr. Pohle-Preuss, Christology,thor of Nature and the Supernatural, pp. 10 sqq.
pp. 17 sq., St. Louis 1912. 5 In ordine morali sive ethico; in
3 Cfr. Pohle-Preuss, The Divine ordine ontologico sive essendi.
MEDIATORSHIP 7
mediator naturalis and mediator per gratiam. Moses,6
the Levites, the Prophets, and the Apostles were medi
ators by grace. So is every Catholic priest in virtue of
his ordination. As regards natural mediatorship, Christ
is our only Mediator in the moral order, because He is
the sole natural Mediator between God and man. The
fact of Christ s existence is in itself a mediation, a bond
between the Creator and His creatures. By uniting our
humanity to His Divinity, He united us to God and
God to us. He is of God and in God, but He is also
of us and in us."7
Being consubstantial with man as
well as with God,8 Christ is the born mediator be
tween God and man (mediator naturalis).
This unique natural mediatorship constitutes the foun
dation of an equally unique moral mediatorship. The
offended Deity exacted adequate atonement for the
sins of mankind, and therefore redemption or moral
mediation was impossible except on the basis of a natural
mediatorship.9
c) It follows, by way of a corollary, (i) that
mankind has but one mediator, because there is
no natural mediator between God and man other
than the Godman Jesus Christ; (2) that all
other so-called "mediators" are such merely by
grace. They owe their mediatorial power solely
and entirely to Christ, and can consequently be
called mediators only in a subordinate and sec
ondary sense.
6Cfr. Deut. V, 5:" Medius fui Catholic Theology, Vol. II, p. 140,
inter Dominum et vos I stood and ed., London 1901.
between the Lord and you."8 Cfr. Pohle-Preuss, Christology.
1 Wilhelm-Scannell, A Manual of Q V. infra, Sect. 2.
8 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
No further argument is required to disprove the Prot
estant objection that Catholics obscure and degrade the
unique mediatorship of Christ by admitting a host of
priests and saints as co-mediators between God andman. "
It is an essential function of the office of a
mediator," says Aquinas, "to join together and unite
those between whom he is to interpose; for it is in the
middle that extremes meet. Now, to unite men with
God perfectively belongs to Christ, through whom menare reconciled to God. . . . And therefore Christ alone
is a perfect mediator between God and men, inasmuch as,
by His death, He reconciled the human race to God. . . .
There is, however, nothing to forbid others from beingcalled mediators between God and men under a certain
respect (secundum quid), in so far, namely, as they co
operate in uniting men with God, either by disposingthem for such a union (dispositive), or by assisting themin the process of unification (ministerialiter)"
10
2. THE DOGMA. Theologically speaking, Mediation is synonymous with Redemption. ThatChrist was our natural Mediator is an article of
faith, defined by the Council of Trent. "Si quishoc Adae peccatum [originate] . . . per aliud
remedium assent tolli quam per meritum unius
mediations Domini nostri lesu Christi, qui nos10 " Ad mediatoris officium proprie reconciliavit. , . . Nihil tamen pro-
pertinet coniungere et unire eos, in- hibet aliquos alias secundum quidter quos est mediator; nam extrema did mediatores inter Deum et ho-uniuntur in media. Unire autem mines, prout soil, cooperantur adhomines Deo perfective quidem con- unionem hominum cum Deo disposi-venit Christo, per quem homines five vel ministerialiter." S. Theol.,sunt reconciliati Deo. . . . Et ideo 33, qu. 26, art. i. Cfr. Franzelin,solus Christus est perfectus Dei et De Verbo Incarnato, thes. 46, Romehominum mediator, inquantum per 1881.
suam mortem humanum genus Deo
CHRIST OUR MEDIATOR 9
Deo reconciliavit in sanguine suo . . . anathema
sit." Anglice :
"
If any one asserts that this
sin of Adam [original sin], ... is taken away. . . by any other remedy than the merit of the
one Mediator, our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath
reconciled us to God in His own blood, ... let
him be anathema."
a) Moral mediation, or the Redemption
proper, according to Holy Scripture, consists
in the shedding of the blood of Him who was
the sole, because the natural, Mediator be
tween God and man. Consequently, Christ s
moral mediatorship is based upon His natural
mediatorship. Cfr. Col. I, 19 sq. : "Quia in
ipso [scil. Christo] complacuit omnem plenitudi-
nem inhabitare [= mediatio ontologica natu-
ralis] et per eum reconciliare omnia in ipsum
pacificans per sanguinem crucis eius [= mediatio
moralis] Because in him it hath well pleased
the Father, that all fulness should dwell; and
through him to reconcile all things unto himself,
making peace through the blood of his cross."12
Both the ontological and the moral mediatorshipof Christ are pregnantly summed up by St. Paul
in i Tim. II, 5 S(l-
:
" Unus enim Deus, unus
11 Cone. Trid., Sess. V, can. 3 12 For a full explanation of this
(in Denzinger s Enchiridion Synt- text cfr. J. N. Schneider, Die Ver-
bolorum, Definitionum et Declara- sbhnung des Weltalls durch das Blut
tionum in Rebus Fidei et Morum, Jesu Christi nach Kol. I, 20, Ratis-
ed. Bannwart, n. 790, Friburgi bon 1857.
1908).
io THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
et mediator Dei et hominuin,13 homo Christus
lesus, qui dedit redemptionem semetipsum proomnibus 14 For there is one God, and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus,who gave himself a redemption for all."
The Redemption of the human race began with the
conception of Jesus Christ and was consummated in
the shedding of His precious Blood on the Cross.15
Hence the functions of His moral mediatorship compriseall His human-divine (theandric) acts from the mangerto Calvary. His mediatorial act par excellence was the
institution of the New Covenant."
Et ideo Novi Testa-
menti mediator 16est, ut morte intercedente in redemp-
tionem earum praevaricationum, quae erant sub priori
Testamento, repromissioncm accipiant And therefore
he is the mediator of the New Testament : that by meansof his death, for the redemption of those transgressionswhich were under the former testament, they that are
called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance."17
In fact everything that Christ did and does for us
must be regarded as the result of His mediatorship, e. g.,
the institution of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the
establishment of His Church, the mission of the HolyGhost, the sanctification of souls,
18etc.
b) We meet with a profound conception of
Christ s mediatorship in the writings of St. Augustine. This Father may be said to have antici
pated the objections of such later heretics as
13 ets /cat {jLeaiTys 6eou /cat 15 Cfr. Heb. X, 5 sqq.
&vdp<air<j)Vic
diadrjK rjs KOLVTJS14 6 dobs eavrbv avTikvTpov virep
17 Heb. IX, 75.
TT&VTUV. 18 Cfr. John XIV, 6.
CHRIST OUR MEDIATOR 11
Calvin, who held that Christ is our mediator only
according to His Divinity, and the older Lutheran theologians, who attributed His mediato
rial action exclusively to His human nature.19
The truth lies between these extremes. It is the God-
man as such who is our Mediator, but only in His hu
man nature." He is the mediator between God and
man," says St. Augustine,"
because He is God with the
Father, and a man with men. A mere man could not
be a mediator between God and man;nor could a mere
God. Behold the mediator : Divinity without humanitycannot act as mediator; nor can humanity without Di
vinity ;but the human Divinity and the Divine humanity
of Christ is the sole mediator between Divinity and hu
manity."20 And again :
"
Christ is the mediator [between God and man] not because He is the Word; for
the Word, being immortal and happy in the highest de
gree, is far removed from the miseries of mortal men;but He is the mediator as man."
21
c) The Schoolmen went into the matter even
more deeply by resolving the concept of mediation into its constituent elements.
10 Cfr. Bellarmine, De Christo, V, et divina humanitas Christi." Serm.,1-10. 47, c. 12, n. 21.
20 "
Mediator Dei et hominum, 21 " Non ob hoc mediator est
quia Deus cum Patre, quia homo Christus, quia Verbum; maximacum hominibus. Non mediator homo quippe immortale et maxime beatumpraeter deitatem, non mediator Deus Verbum longe est a mortalibus\ mi-
praeter humanitatem. Ecce media- seriis; sed mediator est secundumtor: divinitas sine humanitate non quod homo." De Civ. Dei, IX, 15.est mediatrix, humanitas sine divini- For additional Patristic texts seetate non est mediatrix, sed inter di- Petavius, De Incarn., XII, 1-4;vinitatem solam et humanitatem Vasquez, Comment, in S. Theol.,solam mediatrix est humana divinitas III, disp. 83, c. i.
12 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
They had to meet this logical difficulty: The idea
of natural mediation essentially implies three distinct ele
ments, vis.: the two extremes God and man, and a
mediator who must be both God and man, i. e., God-
man(0av6po)7ro<s) . Christ, being God according to His
Divine Nature, is identical with the first of these two
extremes. Consequently, He cannot be a true and nat
ural mediator, for it is impossible to conceive Him as
a go-between between Himself and man. Cfr. Gal.
Ill, 20:" A mediator is not of one."
The Scholastics retorted that Christ is the mediator
between God and man not qua Logos, but qua WordIncarnate, i. e. as man. Cfr. I Tim. II, 5 :
" Onemediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus." TheGod man Christ Jesus is not only numerically distinct from
all other men, He is likewise hypostatically distinct from
the Father and the Holy Ghost, being a different Person
than either. Hence His mediatorship involves three dis
tinct factors: God, man, and Christ. It is true that,
regarded in His Divine Nature, as God, Christ is the
mediator between Himself and mankind. But his media
tion is not effected by the Godhead as such, it is effected
solely by His manhood, which is hypostatically united
with the Second Person of the Trinity. This gives rise
to seeming paradoxes, e. g.: As man He adores, as GodHe is adored; as man He gives satisfaction, as God he
receives it; as man He offers sacrifices, as God Heaccepts them. But this two-sidedness does not destroythe reality of Christ s natural and moral mediation. It
simply constitutes its substratum. To postulate a numerical distinction between the Divine Nature of Christ and
the Godhead of the Father and the Holy Ghost, would be
to base the possibility of the atonement on Tritheism.22
22 Cfr. St. Thomas, S. Theol, 33, qu. 26, art. 2.
SECTION 2
CONGRUITY AND NECESSITY OF THE REDEMPTION
i. CONGRUITY OF THE REDEMPTION. Inasmuch as an
end can be best attained by congruous means, i. c,, means
specially adapted to that particular end, the"
congruous"
may be said to be"
morally necessary." But it is never
necessary in the strict metaphysical sense of the term.
Failure to employ a merely congruous means does not
necessarily frustrate the end to be attained; nor does it
argue a moral fault. A wise man knows how to attain
his ends by various means, none of which may be posi
tively "incongruous." It is in this light that we must
regard certain profound arguments by which Fathers and
theologians have tried to show the congruity of the In
carnation for the purpose of Redemption. Here are
the more notable ones.
a) God in His exterior operation aims solely
at the manifestation of His attributes for the pur
pose of His own glorification. What more ef
fective means could He have chosen for this end
than the Incarnation?
In the Incarnation the seemingly impossible was ef
fected. The Creator was inseparably united with the
creature, the Infinite with the finite, omnipotence with
13
i4 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
mercy; Heaven and earth were locked together, as it
were, by the bond of the Hypostatic Union. Man is
a microcosm reflecting the whole created universe. Nodoubt this is what Tertullian had in mind when he wrote :
" The Son of God was born;I am not ashamed, because
men must needs be ashamed [of it]. And the Son of
God died; it is by all means to be believed, because it is
absurd. And after having been buried, He rose again ;
the fact is certain, because it is impossible.":
(a) God s justice and mercy are glorified in the In
carnation, because, despite their diametric contrariety,
they both meet in it, in such manner that either attri
bute works itself out to the full extent of its infinity
without disturbing the other. 2 When, moved by infinite
mercy, the Son of God satisfied infinite justice by expiat
ing the sins of mankind on the Cross,"
justice and peace
kissed"
in very truth.3
(/?) God s love, too, triumphantly manifested itself in
the Incarnation of the Logos." God so loved the
world, as to give his only begotten Son."4 The mystery
of the Incarnation gives the lie to Aristotle, who held
that, owing to the impassable gulf separating man from
God, anything like "friendship"
is impossible between
them." Both he that sanctifieth, and they who are
sanctified, are all of one; for which cause he is not
ashamed to call them brethren."5
(y) Divine wisdom also reached its climax in this
sublime mystery."
If any one will diligently consider
the mystery of the Incarnation," says St. Thomas,"
he
L" Natus est Dei Films: non 2 Cfr. Pohle-Preuss, God: His
pudet, quia pudendum est; est mor- Knowability, Essence, and Attri*
tuus Dei Filius: prorsus credibile, butes, pp. 466 sqq., St. Louis 1911.
quia ineptum est; et sepultus resur- SPs. LXXXIV, II.
rexit; cerium est, quia impossibile."4 John III, 16.
De Carne Christi, c. 5. 5 Heb. II, u.
CONGRUITY OF THE REDEMPTION 15
will find [therein] a profundity of wisdom exceedingall human understanding. . . . Hence it is that he who
piously meditates on this mystery, will constantly dis
cover [therein] new and more wonderful aspects."6
b) Why did the Second Person of the Most
Holy Trinity become incarnate, rather than the
First or the Third? There is a profound reason
for this.
We have pointed out in Christology7 that nothing in
the personal traits of the Father or of the Holy Ghost
would forbid either of these Divine Persons to assume
human flesh. But there is that in the personal character
of the Son which makes it more appropriate for Himto become incarnate than either the Father or the HolyGhost. It was through the Logos that the universe was
created ;
8 and what is more fitting than that it should
also be repaired by His agency ?9
Moreover, as the
Logos alone is"
the [perfect] image of God,"10
it was
highly appropriate that He should restore to its pristine
purity God s likeness in men, which had been destroyed
by sin.11 " The Divine Logos Himself came into this
world," says St. Athanasius,"
in order that, being the
image of the Father, He might restore man, who wascreated to His image and likeness."
12It also befit-
6"
Si quis autem diligenter incar- 8 Cfr. John I, 3.
nationis mysterium considerct, in- 9 Pope St. Leo the Great says:veniet tantam sapientiae profundita- ". . . ut, quoniam ipse est, per quern
tern, quod omnem humanam cogni- omnia facta sunt et sine quo factumtionem excedat. . . . Unde fit, ut est nihil, . . . cuius erat conditor,
pie consideranti semper magis ac etiam esset reformator." (Serm.,
magis admirabiles rationes huiusmodi 64, Migne, P. L., LIX, 358.)
mysterii manifestentur." Contr. ilO Cfr. z Cor. IV, 4.
Gent., IV, 54. 11 Cfr. Gen. I, 26.
7 Pohle-Preuss, Christology, pp. 12 Or. de Incarn. Verbi, 13.
I3S sq.
16 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
ted the hypostatic character of the Son of God that,
as the true son of the Virgin Mary, He should become the" Son of man," in order to reconstitute all men "
sons
of God "
as by a new birth. 13 The second of these
momenta is well brought out by St. Augustine when he
says :
" That men might be born of God, God was first
born of them. For . . . He through whom we were
to be created, was born of God, and He by whom wewere to be re-created, was born of a woman."
14St.
John of Damascus emphasizes the first-mentioned point
when he observes :
" The Son of God also became the
son of man;He took flesh from the Blessed Virgin, but
did not cease to be the Son of God."15
c) It strikes us as an admirable manifestation
of divine wisdom that the Son of God assumed
human nature rather than that of the angels.
Heb. II, 16: "Nusquam eniin angelos appre-
hendit, sect semen Abrahae apprehendit1G For
nowhere doth he take hold of the angels: but of
the seed of Abraham he taketh hold/
By assuming flesh, the Son of God wished to recon
struct human nature upon its own foundations and to
propose to man for his imitation a pattern exemplar in
the "Following of Christ," neither of which objects
could have been attained had the Divine Logos assumed
the nature of an angel.
13 Cfr. John I, 12; Gal. IV, 4 sq. 15 "
Filius Dei etiam filius hominis14 " Ut homines nascercntur ex fit, qui ex s. virgine incarnatus est,
Deo, primo ex ipsis natus est Deus. nee tamen a filiali proprietate disces-
Christus enint . . . natus ex Deo, sit." De Trinitate, i. Cfr. St.
per quern efficeremur, et natus ex Thomas, 5. Theol., 3a, qu. 3, art. 8.
femina, per quern reficeremur." 16
Tract, in loa., 2, n. 15.
CONGRUITY OF THE REDEMPTION 17
One of the most telling reasons why it was more ap
propriate for the Son of God to assume the nature of
man than that of the angels17
is that none but a God^
man could endow the created universe with the highest
degree of perfection of which it was capable. By the
hypostatic incorporation into the Godhead of a nature
composed of a material body and a spiritual soul, the
physical universe was linked with the realm of pure
spirits."
In no otherway," says Lessius,
"
could the
whole universe have been so appropriately perfected . . .
for by the assumption of man the whole universe was
after a fashion assumed into and united with the Godhead."
18 Thus Christ is in very deed both the natural
and the supernatural keystone of the cosmos, the be
ginning and the end of all things, the pivot of the
universe. Cf r. i Cor. Ill, 22 :
" Omnia enim vestra
simt . . . vos autem Christi, Chrlstus autem Dei For
all things are yours, . . . and you are Christ s, and
Christ is God s."
d) It is a further proof of divine wisdom that
the Son of God chose to come into this world as
the child of a virgin rather than as a full-grownman.
A sweet infant is more apt to win our affection than
a mature man. The virgin birth represented the real
ization of the last of the four possible modes in which
a human being can come into existence. Three of these
had already been realized in Adam, Eve, and their de
scendants. Adam was created immediately by God (sine
17 On the possibility of the 18 De Perfect. Moribusque Divinis,
Logos assuming the nature of an XII, 4.
angel, see Suarez, DC Incarn., disp.
14, sect. 2.
i8 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
mare et femina) ;Eve sprang from the male without fe
male co-operation (ex mare sine femina) ;their descend
ants are propagated by sexual generation (ex mare et
femina) ; Jesus Christ alone originated from a womanwithout male co-operation (ex femina sine mare). This
fact guarantees the reality and integrity of our Lord s
human nature, as has been shown in Christology.10
By His incorporation into the race of the"
first
Adam," our Blessed Redeemer became the"
second
Adam " 20 in a far higher sense than if He had appearedon earth in a celestial body. There is a similar an
tithesis between Eve and the Blessed Virgin Mary. In
Christ the male was elevated, ennobled, and consecrated ;
in Mary, the female." He did not despise the male," says
St. Augustine,"
for he assumed the nature of a man,nor the female, for he was born of a woman."
21
2. NECESSITY OF THE REDEMPTION. Neces
sity is twofold: absolute or hypothetical. Thelatter may be subdivided into a number of special
varieties. Hence in treating of the necessity of
the Redemption we shall have to distinguishbetween several hypotheses.
a) Wyclif asserted that the Redemption wasan absolute necessity. This proposition is untenable.
22
19 Pohle-Preuss, Christology, pp. Blessed Virgin Mary, cfr. Saint
41 sqq. Thomas, S. Theol., 3a, qu. i, art. 5-20 Cfr. Rom. V, 14 sqq.; i Cor. 6. On the whole subject of this
XV, 45. subdivision cfr. De Lugo, De Myst.21
" Nee mares fastidivit, quia Incarn., disp. i, sect. 2; Suarez, Demarem suscepit; nee feminam, quia Incarn., disp. 3, sect. 3; Chr. Pesch,de femina factus est." Ep., 3. On Praelect. Dogmat., Vol. IV, 3rd ed.,the propriety of Christ s beconi* pp. 209 sqq.
ing incarnate at the particular 22 Cfr. Denzinger-Bannwart, En-time when He was conceived by the chiridion, n. 607.
NECESSITY OF THE REDEMPTION 19
Whatever is absolutely necessary involves the same
kind of certainty as that two and two are four. To as
cribe such mathematical necessity to the Incarnation
would be to deny the liberty of the Redemption as well
as that of the Creation, for the^reation_ofthe world was
jm indispensable condition of the Incarnation. Further
more, Revelation~clearty teacRes~that the Redemption of
the human race was in the strictest and most perfect sense
of the word a work of divine grace, mercy, and love.
Wyclif is wrong in holding that the Incarnation satisfies
a legitimate demand of human nature, for in that
hypothesis reason would be able to demonstrate with
mathematical certainty the possibility and existence of
the Hypostatic Union, which we know is not the case.
So far is the human mind from being able to understand
this mystery, that it cannot even demonstrate it after it
has been revealed.23 Hence the Incarnation, if it was at
all necessary, could be necessary only in an hypothetic
sense, that is, on some condition or other. What maythis condition be?
b) Raymond Lull, Malebranche, Leibniz, and
other champions of absolute Optimism contend
that when God determined to create the universe,
He of necessity also decreed the Incarnation, be
cause it is inconceivable that He should have
wished to deprive His work of its highest perfection. In other words, the concept of "the
best possible world" includes the Incarnation.
This theory, which destroys the liberty of the Creator,
is refuted in our dogmatic treatise on God the Author
23 Cfr. Pohle-Preuss, Christology, pp. 45 sq.
20 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
of Nature.2 * Here we merely wish to point out two
facts: that the Creator Himself, without regard to the
future Incarnation, described His work as"
very
good,"
25 and that the Incarnation would not be pre
eminently a free grace if it corresponded to a strict
claim of nature.
The champions of moderate or relative Optimism-*
maintain that the present order, capped by the Incarna
tion, represents the"
best possible world," not because
the Incarnation was a metaphysical necessity, but because
it was morally necessary in view of God s superabundant
goodness. These writers forget that, while the Incarna
tion represents the apogee of divine glorification and the
highest perfection of the universe, it involves at the same
time an equally great humiliation and self-abasement(<?.r-
inanitio, iccWrw) of God s Majesty, which is inconceivable
in any other hypothesis except as a free decree of His
love.27
c) The further question arises : Did God oweit to fallen man to redeem him by means of the
Incarnation ? The answer is that the restoration
of the state of grace which man had enjoyed in
Paradise was just as truly a free gift of God s
mercy and benevolence as that state itself, nay,even more so.
That God was under no obligation to redeem His
creatures is evidenced by the fate of the fallen angels.
Cfr. also Wisd. XII, 12:"
Quis tibi imputabit, si peri-
24 Cfr. Pohle-Preuss, God the An- Dei, disp. 9), Sylvester Maurus (Dethor of Nature and the Supernatural, Deo, disp. 51), and Viva (De In-
pp. 45 sq. earn., qu. 2, art. 2).25 Gen. I, 31. 27 Cfr. De Lugo, De Myst. Incarn.,26 E. g., Didacus Ruiz (De Volunt. disp. 2, sect. 1-2.
NECESSITY OF THE REDEMPTION 21
erint nationes, quas tu fecisti? Who shall accuse thee,
if the nations perish, which thou hast made?" St.
Augustine may have held harsh and exaggerated views
on the subject of predestination, but he was certainly
right when he said :
" The entire mass incurred pen
alty; and if the deserved punishment of condemnation
were rendered to all, it would without doubt be right
eously rendered."28
To say that the Incarnation, though the result of a free
decree, was the only means God had of redeeming the
human race,29 would be unduly to restrict the divine attri
butes of mercy, wisdom, and omnipotence in their essence
and scope.30 God might, without injustice, have left the
human race to perish in its iniquity, and there is nothing
repugnant either to faith or right reason in the assumption that He might, with or without the intervention of
some appointed saint or angel as representative of the
28"
Universa massa poenas dabat, sition see Stentrup in the Zeit-
ft si omnibus damnationis supplicium schrlft filr katholische Theoloyie,
redderetur, non iniuste procul dubio pp. 653 sqq., Innsbruck 1892. B.
redderetur." (De Nat. et Grat., c. Funke, Grundlagen und Voraussetz-
5.) ungen dcr Satisfaktionstheorie des
29 This opinion was held by St. hi, Anselm, Minister 1903, furnishes
Anselm (Cur Deus Homo? I, 4; II, a notable contribution in support of
12), Richard of St. Victor (De In- Dorholt s thesis. Cfr. also L. Hein-
carn. Verbi, c. 8), and Tournely (De richs, Genugtuungstheorie des hi.
Deo, qu. 19, art. i; De Incarn., qu. Ansclmus, Paderborn 1909; and
4 sqq.). It is absolutely without Pohle-Preuss, God: His Knowability,
Scriptural warrant. De Lugo says of Essence, and Attributes, pp. 462it:
* Mihi videtur satis ad errorem sqq.
accedere, eo quod, licet non omnino 30 " Sunt stulti qui dicunt : Nondare, fere tamen dare ex Scriptura poterat aliter sapientia Dei homines
colligatur opposition, accedente prae- liberare, nisi susciperet hominem et
sertim expositions communi Pa- nascerctur de femina. . . . Quibustrum." (Op. cit., disp. 2, sect, i, dicimus: Poterat omnino, sed si
n. 6). Lately an attempt has been aliter faceret, similiter vestrae stulti-
made to interpret St. Anselm s tiae displiceret." (St. Augustine,
opinion more mildly (Dorholt, Die De Agone Christi, XI, 12). For
Lehre von der Genngtuung Christi, other Patristic texts consult Peta-
pp. 201 sqq,, Paderborn 1891). vius, De Incarn., II, 13.
For a criticism of Dorholt s po-
22 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
whole race, have restored penitent sinners to His gracewithout demanding any equivalent whatever, or on the
basis of an inadequate satisfaction. Hence, according to
Suarez,31 the universal teaching of theologians that God
in His omnipotence might have repaired human naturein a variety of other ways,
32is so certain that
"
it cannotbe denied without temerity and danger to the faith."
d) The Incarnation can be conceived as a
necessary postulate of the Redemption only on the
assumption that God exacted adequate (i. e., in
finite) satisfaction for the sins of men. In that
hypothesis manifestly none but a natural media
tor, that is to say, a Godman, was able to give the
satisfaction demanded.
Sin involves a sort of infinite guilt and cannot be
adequately atoned for except by an infinite satisfac
tion.33 The Fathers held that not even the human
nature of Christ, as such, considered apart from the
Hypostatic Union, could make adequate satisfaction for
our sins;much less, of course, was any other creature,
human or angelic, equal to the task. For, in the wordsof St. Augustine,
" we could not be redeemed, even bythe one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ
Jesus, if He were not also God."34
Though this was the most difficult mode of redemption,
31 De Incarn., disp. 4, sect. 2, n. 3. 34 St. Augustine, Enchir., c. 108:32 Cfr. St. Thomas, S. TheoL, aa,
"
Neque per ipsum Hberaremur unumqu. i, art. 2:
" Deus per suam mediatorem Dei et hominum, homi-omnipotentem virtutem poterat hu- nem lesum Christum, nisi esset etmanam naturam multis aliis modis Deus." For additional texts fromreparare." the writings of the Fathers consult
33 Cfr. St. Thomas, S. TheoL, 33, Vasquez, disp. 4, c. 3; Thomassin,qu- 2, ad 2. De Incarn., I, 4.
NECESSITY OF THE REDEMPTION 23
it was the one actually chosen by God. The Incarnation
of the Logos satisfied the full rigor of His justice, but it
also gave free play to His boundless love. The fact that
the atonement was decreed from eternity explains such
Scriptural phrases as John III, 14 :
"
Exaltari oportet35
Filium hominis The Son of man must be lifted up"
(as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert), and Luke
XXIV, 26:" Nonne haec oportuit pati
3Q Christum
Was it not necessary for Christ to have suffered these
things ?" 37
35v\f/o8ijvai Set. Praelectiones Dogmaticae, Vol. IV,
36 25et iraQetv. 3rd ed., pp. 201 sqq., Friburgi 1909;37 Cfr. Heb. IX, 22. On the sub- De Lugo, De Myst. Incarn., disp. 2,
ject of the foregoing paragraphs con- 3, 5; Billuart, De Incarn., diss. 3,
suit J. Kleutgen, Theologie der Vor- art. 2; B. Dorholt, Die Lehre von
zeit, Vol. Ill, pp. 336 sqq., 381 sqq., der Genugtuung Christi, pp. 171 sqq.,
430 sqq., Munster 1870; Chr. Pesch, Paderborn 1891.
SECTION 3
PREDESTINATION OF THE REDEEMER
i. STATE OF THE QUESTION. Would the Son
of God have appeared in the flesh if Adam had not
sinned? In other words, was the Incarnation
absolutely predetermined? This is a most inter
esting question, and the famous theological con
troversy to which it gave rise, throws so clear a
light on the dogma of the Redemption and the
sublime dignity of the Redeemer, that we must
give an account of it here.
The underlying problem may be briefly stated
as follows: The Incarnation was dictated bytwo principal motives, namely, (i) compassionfor the misery of mankind, and (2) the glorifi
cation of God and His Christ.1 Which of these
motives outweighed the other? This questionmust receive an answer before we can determine
whether the fall of Adam was an indispensable
condition of the Incarnation, or whether the Di
vine Logos assumed human flesh irrespective of
the existence or non-existence of a sinful race of
iCfr. John XVII, 4 sqq.; 2 Thess. I, 12.
J KO^-v-t Arvt-v-^V* lk*Jt fcvw XO*Mt -J
, r. UT ^f^ /_
PREDESTINATION OF THE REDEEMER 25
v^} "** i~
men. The former view is held by the Thomists,
the latter by the Scotists. Sc,
The Scotists conceive the divine decrees appertaining
to the Redemption in the following order. First of all
comes the absolute predistination of Christ and His
divine kingdom, consisting of angels and men. In the
second place, the permission of the sin of Adam ;and in
the third place, the mission of Christ in His capacity of
passible Redeemer.
The Thomists, on the other hand, hold that God created
the universe without regard to Christ; that He subse
quently decreed to permit sin, and lastly determined on
the Incarnation of the Logos for the purpose of redeem
ing the human race.
As may be seen from this enumeration, the Scotists
put the Incarnation first, while the Thomists put it last.
From the Scotist point of view God s predominant motive in decreeing the Incarnation was the dignity and
glorification of Christ. The universe was created for
Christ s sake. The Thomists, on the other hand, ascribe
the Incarnation of the Logos primarily to God s mercy.In the Scotist hypothesis the Incarnation is altogether
independent of the Fall;the Thomists regard the latter
as an indispensable condition of the former.
Against the Scotist view there lies this objection: If
Christ was not predestined to atone for the sins of men,
why did He appear on earth as a passible Redeemer rather
than, as we should have every reason to expect, in the
capacity of an impassible, glorified Godman? TheScotists meet this difficulty by saying that the first and
absolute decree touching the Incarnation was modified in
view of the Fall;that after the Fall, Christ, who originally
26 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
was to have appeared among men as homo gloriosus, de
cided to assume human flesh and become homo passibilis.
In general terms the two theories may be characterized
as follows: The Scotistic theory is inspired by a tran
scendent idealism, whereas the Thomist view conforms
to the facts as we know them. To enable the reader to
form his own estimate we will briefly state the leading
arguments adduced by both schools.
2. THE THOMISTIC THEORY. That the Fall
of Adam was the chief motive which promptedGod to decree the Incarnation, is held by all
Thomists,2 and also by a large number of theo
logians belonging to other schools, e. g., Gregoryof Valentia, Vasquez, Petavius, Cardinals To-
letus and De Lugo, and even by the "ideal"
Lessius.3
Among modern theologians this the
ory has been espoused by Kleutgen,4
Stentrup,5
Tepe,6 and many others.
Toletus and Petavius absolutely reject the Scotist
hypothesis. Chr. Pesch 7 and L. Janssens8
prefer the
Thomist view, but admit the other as probable. In this
they follow St. Thomas himself 9 and St. Bonaventure. 10
The Angelic Doctor both in his Commentary on the Liber
Sententiarum and in the Summa Theologica expresses
2 Cfr. Billuart, De Incarn., diss. 7 Praelect. Dogm., Vol. IV, 3d ed.,
3, art. 3. pp. 216 sqq.
3 De Praedest. Christi (Opusc., t. 8 De Deo-Homine, II: Soteriologia,
II, pp. 483 sqq., Paris 1878). pp. 44 sqq.
4 Theologie der Vorzeit, Vol. Ill, 9 Comment, in Quatuor Libras
pp. 393 sqq. Sent., Ill, dist. i, qn. i, art. 3.
5 Soteriologia, thes. 2. 10 Comment, in Quatuor Libras
Qlnstit. TheoL, Vol. Ill, pp. 663 Sent., Ill, dist. i, art. 2, qu. 2.
sqq., Paris 1896.
THE THOMISTIC THEORY 27
himself with cautions reserve. St. Bonaventure says :
" He who was macle flesh for us, alone knows which of
the two theories is the better. Which is to be preferredit is difficult to say, because both are Catholic and
sustained by Catholic authors."1X
The Thomistic conception is based upon arguments
which, though not cogent, are perfectly sound.
a) St. Thomas himself argues as follows:
"Some claim that the Son of God would have
assumed human flesh even if man had not sinned.
Others assert the contrary, and their teachingseems to have a greater claim to our assent.
The reason is this. Whatever proceeds solely
from the Divine Will, transcending every exi
gency of nature, must remain unknown to us,
except it be revealed by Sacred Scripture. . . .
Now, Sacred Scripture invariably assigns the sin
of Adam as the motive of the Incarnation. It is
more befitting, therefore, to regard the Incarna
tion as ordained by God for the cure of sin, so
that if there had been no sin there would havebeen no Incarnation."
l2
As a matter of fact, whenever Sacred Scripture speaksof the motive of the Incarnation, it invariably points to
11 I- c. innotescere non possunt, nisi qua-125". Theol., 33, qu. i, art. 3: tenus in S. Scriptura traduntur. . . .
"
Quidam dicunt, quod etiamsi homo Unde quum in S. Scriptura ubiquenon peccasset, Dei Filius incarnatus incarnationis ratio ex peccato primifuisset. Alii -vero contrarium as- hominis assignetur, convenientius
serunt, quorum assertioni tnagis as- dicitur, incarnationem opus ordina-sentiendum zndetur. Ea enim quae turn esse a Deo in remedium contraa sola Dei voluntate proveniunt peccatum, ita quod peccato non exi-
supra omne debitum naturae, nobis stente incarnatio non fuisset."
2& THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
the sin of Adam. It is because He was sent to redeem
the fallen race of men that Christ received the name of
"Jesus,"i. e., Saviour or Redeemer (salvator, o-wr^/p).
Cfr. Matth. I, 21 :
"
Et vocabis nomen eius lesum; ipse
enim 13 salvum faciet populum suum a peccatis eorum
And thou shalt call his name Jesus ;for he shall save
his people from their sins."14
Jesus Himself never even
hints at any other motive. Cfr. Luke XIX, 10:"
Venit enim Filius hominis quaerere et salvum facere,
quod perierat For the Son of man is come to seek
and to save that which was lost." It seems perfectly
legitimate to conclude, therefore, that the redemption of
man was the main motive which prompted God to send
His Son. Had there been a higher and more com
prehensive motive, it would be strange to find no hint
of it in the Scriptures.
The weight of this argument must not, however, be
overrated. For, in the first place, the texts upon which
it is based are purely affirmative, but not exclusive, so
that the argument based upon them is at bottom merelyone ex silentio. And, secondly, the Scriptural passagesin question all refer to the actual order of salvation,
not to its hidden background. Although the Incarna
tion and the Redemption are causally correlated, Sacred
Scripture does not define the nature of their mutual
relationship, and tells us nothing at all concerning the
question whether the Incarnation is subordinate to the
Redemption, or vice versa.
b) Owing to their larger knowledge of the
writings of the Fathers, modern theologians are
Rom. Ill, 25; Gal. IV, 4; i Tim.14 Similarly Matth. IX, 13; Mark I, 15; j John III, 5.
II, 17; Luke I, 31; John III, 17;
THE THOMISTIC THEORY 29
able to construct a far more convincing Patristic
argument than was possible in the time of St.
Thomas. Holy Scripture merely intimates by its
silence that there would have been no Incarnation
if Adam had not sinned. The Fathers enunciate
this proposition in explicit terms.
"
I am persuaded," writes Cardinal Toletus,"
that, hadthe old Scholastic doctors been acquainted with the manyPatristic testimonials which I now adduce, they wouldhave admitted that the contrary view is absolutely de
void of probability."15 We will cite a few of these tes
timonials. St. Athanasius says :
" The assumption of
human nature [on the part of the Logos] presupposes a
necessity, apart from which He would not have put onflesh."
16St. Ambrose asks :
" What was the cause of
the Incarnation if not this, that the flesh which had sinned
by itself, should by itself be redeemed?"17 And St.
Augustine declares that"
the Lord Jesus Christ came in
the flesh . . . for no other reason than ... to save,
liberate, redeem, and enlighten [those who are engraftedmembers of His body]."
18 We may also refer to the
Creed :
" Who for us men and for our salvation de
scended from Heaven," and to the Easter hymn :
" Ohappy fault, which deserved to have so great and gloriousa Redeemer !
"
To sum up the argument: Tradition, so far as we
15 In S. TheoL, h. I. per se redimereturf " De Incarn.,16 Or. contr. Arian., 2, 54. Sim- c. 6, n. 56.
ilarly Gregory of Nazianzus (Or., 18 De Pccc. Her. et Rem., I, 26,
30, n. 3) and Cyril of Alexandria 39. Additional Patristic texts in
(Thesaur., V, 8). Lessius, De Praedest. Christi, sect.17 "
Quae erat causa incarnationis, i, n. 5; Stentrup, Soteriologia, thes.
nisi ut caro, quae per se peccaverat, i sq. Cfr. Petavius, De Incarn.,
II, 17.
30 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
are able to ascertain it, is against the absolute predesti
nation of Christ, but holds that, if man had not sinned,
the Son of God would never have become incarnate.
To escape this argument, the Scotists urge their above-
mentioned distinction between"
Christus gloriosus"
and"
Christus passibilis" God s original decree concerning
the Incarnation, they say, was from all eternity modified by the Fall of man, which necessitated a pas
sible redeemer; and it is to this particular aspect _jof
the Incarnation alone that the Patristic texts apply; at
least it is possible so to interpret them. But even if
they could be interpreted in the wider sense in which they
are understood by the Thomists, we should still be dealing
with a mere theory, which no rule of faith constrains us
to adopt. In support of this view the Scotist theologians
i point to the modification which the Patristic theory of"
satisfaction"
has experienced in course of time with
out detriment to its substance.
3. THE SCOTISTIC THEORY. If the question
at issue had to be decided purely on the author
ity of theologians, we should be unable to arrive
at a unanimous decision, so evenly is authority
balanced against authority. The Scotistic theory
originated with Abbot Rupert of Deutz. 19It
was adopted by Albert the Great 20 and developed
by Duns Scotus,21
in whose school it eventually
obtained the upper hand. 22It has also found
many ardent defenders outside the Scotistic
19 De Gloria et Hon. Filii Hominis 21 Comment, in Quatuor Libros
Libri XIII; De Trinit., Ill, 20. Sent., Ill, dist. 7, qu. 3.
20 Comment, in Quatuor Libros 22 Cfr. Mastnus, Disp. Theol.,
Sent., Ill, dist. 20, art. 4. disp. 4, qu. i.
THE SCOTISTIC THEORY 31
camp, among them Ambrose Catharinus,23 Ysam-
bert, St. Bernard of Siena, St. Francis de Sales,24
and especially Suarez.25 For a while its defend
ers were few, but of late the theory is again com
ing into favor. Among its modern champions we
may mention: Faber, Gay, Bougaud, Schell,
Fr. Risi, and Du Cappucce.26
The arguments for the Scotist position are un
deniably strong.
a) Their Scriptural basis is the oft-repeatedstatement of St. Paul that the Incarnation of
Christ was pre-ordained by an eternal and abso
lute divine decree without regard to the Fall.
The Apostle declares that all things are by Christ and
for Christ, i. e., tend towards Him as their final end and
object. Cfr. Heb. II, 10:"
Propter quern omnia et
per quern omnia For whom are all things and bywhom are all
things."2r
Col. I, 16 sqq. :
"
Omnia peripsum et in ipso
28 creata sunt . . . et ipse est ante
omnes zoet omnia in ipso constant; et ipse est caput
corports Ecclesiae, qui est principium,30
primogenitus ex
mortuis, ut sit in omnibus ipse primatum tenens 31 Inhim were all things created . . . and he is before all,
and by him all things consist. And he is the head ofthe body, the church, who is the beginning, the first
born from the dead; that in all things he may hold the
A!*^l
23 De Praedestin. Eximia Christi, 27 t>
# T&Lugduni 1542. Traj/ra.
24 De I Amour de Dieu, II, 4. 28 efr avrov25 De Incarn
-> disp. 5. 29
26"Primaute de Notre-SeigneurJesus-Christ," in the Etudes Fran- 31
ciscaines, 1890, 1900.
32 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
primacy." If Christ holds first place in the divine
economy of the universe, and the world of angels and menwas reserved to the last, so runs the Scotist argument, the
Incarnation cannot have been subordinate to the Creation
and Redemption, but, on the contrary, must rank far
above it. Without Christ there could have been no cre
ation. Hence Christ is"
before all,"
"
the first-born of
every creature."32 He is the centre and pivot of the uni
verse, not in consequence of the Fall, but absolutely and
from all eternity. He has not been added to the created
universe By~ accident, but rules it as Tr/xorevW, and is the
Alpha and Omega of all things from the beginning.33
b) Though this theory cannot be strictly dem
onstrated from the writings of the Fathers, yet
the Patristic interpretation of several passages in
the Sapiential Books of the Old Testament seems
to lend it weight. The fact that the Fathers
were unable to gauge the full bearing of their
interpretation does not forbid us to push to their
legitimate conclusions the principles which they
asserted.
We have pointed out in our treatise on the Trinity34
that certain of the Fathers applied Proverbs VIII, 22 :
" The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his ways,
before he made anything from the beginning,"35 to the
temporal birth of the Logos, that is, the Incarnation.
This can only mean that Christ was predestined to be
32 Col. I, 15; cfr. Rom. VIII, 29. 34 Pohle-Preuss, The Divine Trin-
33 The objections urged against ity, p. 157.
this interpretation may be read in 35 " Dominus possedit (efcrwe) meDe Lugo, De Myst. Incarn., disp. in initio viarum suarum, antequam
7, sect. 2. quidquam faceret a principio."
THE SCOTISTIC THEORY 33
the First and that all things were created for His sake.39
On the strength of Gen. II, 24 and Eph. V, 31 sqq.
several Fathers held that the nature of matrimony, as an
image of"
Christ s union with His Church," was re
vealed to Adam in Paradise. If this be true, our Lord s
appearance on earth cannot be conceived as conditioned
by the Fall." Even if man had not sinned, but
had remained in the state of innocence," says St. Augustine,
37 "
matrimony would still be the symbol of Christ s
union with His Church."38
When it comes to theological arguments, the
Scotists can allege in their favor all the reasons
which we have given above for the congruity of
the Incarnation as such, especially the fact that,
in the words of Lessius,39
"bythe assumption of
man the whole universe was, after a fashion,
assumed into and united with the Godhead."
Strangely enough, Lessius subsequently under
mined his own position by saying: "If anycreated nature was to be assumed primarily for
the sake of perfecting the universe, it would
have been the most perfect, i. e., that of the
highest angel."
40 This conclusion does not fol
low. Unlike man, an angel is not a "microcosm."
Besides, there is something sublime and over-
36 Cfr. Suarez, De Incarn., disp. 38 For the Thomist reply to this
5, sect. 2. argument see Lessius, De Praedest.37 "
Coniugium etiam in statu in- Christi, n. 23 sqq.
nocentiae, si homo non peccasset, 39 De Perfect. Mor. Div., XII, 4.
futurum sacramentum coniunctionis 40 De Praedest. Christi, n. 9.
Christi cum Ecclcsia." (De Nupt.el Concup., I, 21.)
34 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
whelming in the thought that, as Scotism con
sistently teaches, not only all men but all angels,
not only fallen and sinful man, but likewise manas constituted in Paradise, owe their original
sanctity entirely to the merits of an absolutely
predestined Redeemer; that all grace radiates
from Christ, the "sun of justice/ who sanctifies
angels and men and disperses the shadows of
death.
Perhaps the weightiest argument adduced for
the Scotist position is the one developed by Su-
arez : The end cannot be inferior to the meansdevised for its attainment. This would be the
case if the Incarnation merely served the pur
pose of the Redemption. No sensible hunter
would shoot a cannon to bring down a sparrow.Christ is not only the crown of the created uni
verse, He is also the climax of divine glorification.
Without Him the universe would be meaningless.He who is highest and most perfect in the order of
being, must also be first in the plan of creation,
and the fulness of divine glory cannot have been
dependent on the accident of the Fall.
The Scotistic theory recommends itself byjits
sublimity. It groups angels and men around
the Godman as the center of the universe, the
highest and final revelation, the beginning and
end of all things.41
41 Cfr. Jos. Pohle in the Katholik, Mainz 1886, II, 461 sqq., 578 sqq.
CHAPTER II
THE REDEMPTION OF THE HUMAN RACE THROUGHCHRIST S VICARIOUS ATONEMENT
SECTION i
THE REALITY OF CHRIST S VICARIOUS ATONEMENT
ARTICLE I
VICARIOUS ATONEMENT DEFINED
This Chapter deals with the concrete fact of Christ s
vicarious atonement (satisfactio vicaria) rather than with
the abstract notion of Redemption, which even heretics
do not entirely deny ;hence we must be careful to define
our terms.
i. EXPLANATION OF THE TERM "ATONE
MENT." a) By atonement we understand the
reparation of any wrong or injury, either material (damnum) or moral (offensa, iniurid).
Material injury demands restitution; moral in
jury can be repaired only by satisfaction or atone
ment in the strict sense of the term. The RomanCatechism defines "satisfaction" as "nothing else
than compensation for an injury offered to an
other." Satisfaction in the sense of discharging
35
36 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
a penance enjoined in confession will be treated
in connection with the Sacrament of Penance.
b) Atonement, in the sense in which the term
is used in Soteriology, presupposes an offence
committed against, or an injury done to, God.
It is for our sins that God demands satisfaction.
Sin and satisfaction are consequently correlative
terms, or, to put it more accurately, they are an
titheses clamoring for reconciliation.
The concept of sin contains a twofold element :
guilt (reatus culpae) and punishability (reatus
poenae). Guilt and punishability are inseparable. Their gravity depends partly on the dignityof the person offended (gravitas formalls) and
partly on the character of the offence committed
(gravitas materialis). God is infinite in dig
nity and majesty; therefore every grievous sin,
morally considered, involves an infinite offence.
"A sin committed against God," says St. Thomas,
"partakes in a manner of infinity, through its re
lation to the infinite majesty of God; for an of
fence is the more serious, the greater the personoffended."
1
Considered as a moral delinquency on the partof man, sin is a merely finite evil. In respect of
God, however, it is infinite. "Iniuria est in iniuri-
ato." This applies, of course, only to mortal sin,
which seriously disturbs the sinner s relation to
1 S. TheoL, 33, qu. i, art. 2, ad 2.
VICARIOUS ATONEMENT 37
God. This relation, if justice be given free
scope, cannot be restored except by means of ade
quate satisfaction (emptio, redemptio).
c) Grievous sin, as we have said, involves an
infinite offence, for which no creature, least of
all the sinner himself, can render adequate satis
faction. Adequate in this case means infinite
satisfaction, and infinite satisfaction can be
given only by one who is infinite in dignity.
Hence none but a Godman could redeem the hu
man race. Hence also the necessity of a vica
rious atonement.
2. DEFINITION OF "VICARIOUS ATONEMENT."
The notion of vicariatio does not imply that he
who acts as substitute or representative for an
other takes upon himself the other s guilt or sin
as such. No one can be the bearer or subject
of another s sins. In this erroneous sense vicar
ious atonement involves a contradiction, because
no mediator can give satisfaction for another s
sins unless he is himself sinless. Vicarious atone
ment, therefore, can only mean the voluntary as
sumption of a punishment due to sin, not in
deed the reatiis poence, which implies real guilt,
but the penance imposed by God. In other words,
the Godman renders infinite satisfaction in our
stead, and this satisfaction by its objective worth
counterbalances our infinite offence and is ac-
38 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
cepted by God as though it were given by our
selves.
To illustrate the case by an analogy. Thehuman race is like an insolvent merchant. Christ
voluntarily assumes our obligations and is com
pelled to pay the whole debt. The sum of this
debt is His Precious Blood, (i Pet. I, 18 sq.)
3. OBJECTIONS REFUTED. The Socinians, andmodern Rationalists generally, reject the Catholic dogma of Christ s vicarious atonement on the
pretext that it involves manifest contradictions,
(a) with regard to God, (b) with regard to
Christ, and (c) with regard to man. We will
briefly examine these alleged contradictions.
a) The doctrine of the atonement is held to be con
tradictory in respect of God for the reason that forgiveness of sins is sometimes attributed to pure mercy andsometimes to strict justice, whereas these two attributes
are mutually exclusive.
If the simultaneous manifestation of God s infinite
mercy and justice really involved an intrinsic contradic
tion, St. Paul would have been the first to incur this
charge, for he says in his Epistle to the Romans :
" Youare justified freely by his grace,
2
through the redemption 3 that is in Christ
Jesus."4 In exacting satisfaction
for our sins from His own Son instead of us poor sin
ners, God exercised in an eminent manner both His
mercy and His justice. There is no contradiction in
volved in this proposition. This would be the case onlyif the sinner were held to give adequate satisfaction in
25a>peai> Ty avrov ^dpiTt.
3 ta 7-775 dTroXvTpuffeus- * Rom. Ill, 24.
VICARIOUS ATONEMENT 39
person and his performance subsequently stamped as a
grace. Holy Scripture is perfectly consistent in teach
ing, on the one hand, that" God so loved the world as
to give his only-begotten Son,"5and, on the other, thai;
"
by sending his own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh,
and of sin, [God] hath condemned sin in the flesh."G
b) The doctrine of the atonement is declared to be
contradictory for the further reason that it involves the
punishment of an innocent person in lieu of the guilty
criminal. It is downright murder, however disguised,
for God to exact the blood of His own guiltless Son in
expiation for the sins of others, say the Rationalists.
God would indeed be unjust had He imposed the guilt
and punishment of others upon His innocent Son as
though He were the guilty criminal. But this is by no
means the teaching of the Church. Not having per
sonally sinned, Christ could not be punished as a sin
ner. Hence His death was not a punishment in the
proper sense of the word, but merely a satisfactio
laboriosa. Furthermore, it was not imposed on Him
against His will. He Himself declares :
"
I lay down
my life for my sheep. ... I lay it down of myself,7 and I
have power to lay it down : and I have power to take it up
again."8 Volenti non fit iniuria (No wrong arises to
one who consents). Hence the atonement cannot be
said to involve a violation of commutative justice. Nordoes it run counter to distributive justice, for Christ s
dolorous passion and death, besides redounding to the ad
vantage of the human race, also brought Him personal
reward and glory. Cf r. Luke XXIV, 26 :
"
Ought not
5 John III, 16. 7 air
6 Rom. VIII, 3. Cfr. Pohle- 8 John X, 15, 18.
Preuss, God: His Knowability, Es
sence, and Attributes, pp. 466 sqq.
40 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into
his glory ?"
c) In regard to man, the doctrine of the atonement
is denounced as repugnant on the score that one
who is guilty of a crime should, as a point of honor,
give the necessary satisfaction himself, and not shift
this painful duty to another. Our Rationalist adver
saries add that the idea of a man s appropriating to
himself the fruits of another s labor is preposterous.
They overlook the fact that man was absolutely unable
to render adequate satisfaction for sin. God manifested
His infinite love and mercy precisely in deigning to accepta "vicarious atonement. It cannot be proved that this
involves an injustice. The objection will lose muchof its force if we take into consideration the fact that
Christ represented the human race in the order of gracein much the same manner in which Adam had vicari
ously represented it upon the occasion of the Fall. Hencethe Scriptural antithesis between the
"
first Adam "
and
the"
second Adam." Christ is no stranger to us;He is
"
bone of our bone," our"
brother"
as well as our spir
itual head. His merits constitute as it were a family
heirloom, in which each of us has a share.
The privilege of participating in the merits of Christ s
vicarious atonement does not relieve us of the duty of
personally atoning for our sins. That Christ has ren
dered adequate satisfaction for the sins of the whole
race, does not mean that each individual human being is
eo ipso subjectively redeemed. This is the teaching of"
orthodox" Lutheranism, not of the Catholic Church.
We Catholics believe that the individual sinner must feel
sorry for his sins, confess them, and render satisfaction
for them, though, of course, no satisfaction can be of
THE DOGMA PROVED 41
any avail except it is based on the merits of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ.9
ARTICLE 2
THE DOGMA OF CHRIST S VICARIOUS ATONEMENT PROVED
FROM REVELATION.
i. VARIOUS HERESIES AND THE TEACHING OF
THE CHURCH. The heretical opinions that have
arisen in course of time with regard to the dogmaof Christ s vicarious atonement owe their in
spiration either to Rationalism or to Pantheism.
The Rationalist error that the idea of individual
liberty absolutely excludes original sin, found
its embodiment in Pelagianism and Socinianism,
two heretical systems which, though not con-
temporaneous, agreed in denying original sin and
the atonement. Pantheism, which merges all
individuals into one Absolute Being and regards
sin as a function of the Godhead, gave birth to
Gnosticism and modern Theosophy.
a) All these heresies are based on a radically wrong
conception of the nature of sin.
a) Pelagianism rests on the fundamental fallacy
9 Cfr. Cone. Trident., Sess. XIV, specious objections (see that writer s
cap. 8 (Denzinger-Bannwart, En- book, Die Krisis des Christentums
chiridion, n. 904). An excellent in der modernen Theologie, pp. 10
treatise on the philosophical aspects sqq., Berlin 1882) are effectively
of the atonement is G. A. Pell s refuted by B. Dorholt, Die Lehre
Das Dogma von der Sunde und Er- von der Genugtuung Christi, pp.
losung im Lichte der Vernunft, Rat- 160 sqq.. Paderborn 1891.
isbon 1886. Edw. von Hartmann s
42 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
that sin is essentially the free act of an individual andcannot be conceived as moral guilt incurred by propa
gation (original sin). In consequence of this basic error,
the Pelagians wrongly held that the grace of Christ has
for its object not the redemption of the whole human race
by the effacement of an inherited sin of nature, but the
setting up of an ideal or pattern of virtue in accordancewith which the individual is obliged to regulate his personal conduct. Christ gave us
"
a good example"
to
counteract the"
bad example"
set by Adam. Pelagian-ism credited the sinner with sufficient strength to arise
after falling, nay to attain to a state of perfect sinless-
ness 1 without supernatural aid, and hence denied the ne
cessity of grace and unduly exaggerated the moral ca
pacity of human nature. 2
The soteriological consequences implied in Pelagius
system were expressly drawn by Socinianism. This her
esy originated towards the close of the sixteenth century
by way of a reaction against"
orthodox "
Protestantism.
Its founders were Laelius Socinus and his nephewFaustus, both natives of Siena, Italy. Faustus Socinus
( I 539~ I6o4) systematized and developed the teachingsof his uncle in several works: De Christo Servatore, DeOfficio Christi, and Brevis Discursus de Ratione Salutis
1 Impeccantia, ava/J,apTr]ffia. bitrio, De Correptione et Gratia, De2 Cfr. Blunt s Dictionary of Sects, Praedestinatione Sanctorum, De
Heresies, Ecclesiastical Parties, and Dono Perseveraniiae, Contra lulia-
Schools of Religious Thought, pp. num Pelagianum, De Gestis Pelagii,415 sqq., New Impression, London De Octo Dulcitii Quaestionibus, Com-1903; also the Preface to P. ment. in Psalmos, Serm., x and xiv,Holmes translation of The Anti- and in his Epistles to Paulinus, Op-Pelagian Works of Saint Augustine, tatus, Sextus, Celestine, Vitalis, andVol. I, pp. i sqq., Edinburgh 1872. Valentine. Cfr. also the VariaSt. Augustine treats at length of Scripta et Monumenta ad Pelagia-Pelagianism in the following books: norum Historiam Pertin -tia at theDe Nuptiis et Concupiscentia, Contra close of Vol. X of the BenedictineDuas Epistolas Pelagianorum, En- edition of St. Augustine s works.chiridion, De Gratia et Libero Ar-
GNOSTICISM 43
Nostrae ex Sermonibus Fausti Socini. 3 Socinianismdenied the Trinity, the Divinity of Jesus Christ, the
necessity of supernatural grace, and the dogma of the
vicarious atonement. Its champions alleged that Christ is
properly speaking ngithJi_Qur Saviour nor a true high.
grigsjLr- but merely a^isajcJaer pointing the way to salva^.
tion. The chief object of His coming was to_inculcatethe
" Our Father." To the Socinians have succeededthe modern Unitarians, who are distinguished fromtheir predecessors principally by the denial of the miraculous conception of our Lord and the repudiation ofHis worship. The Socinian theology also had consid
erable influence in forming the modern Rationalist
school. 4
Hermes and Gunther 5 held an intermediate positionbetween the Catholic dogma and these heretical vagaries.
(3) Diametrically opposed to the soteriological teach
ing of the Pelagians and Socinians is that of the Gnostics
and Theosophists.
Gnosticism was at bottom a Manichsean heresy. Its
votaries held that, since the human soul is part of that
principle (hyle) which is essentially bad, sin cannot be amoral delinquency, and for a man to be redeemed fromsin implies no more than that his soul is freed fromthe shackles of the material body. The human nature o|_Christ was regarded by the Gnostics as purely fictitious^
jand apparitional, because the Divine Logos could not pos-
"sWy unite Himself with matter, which is essentially evil.
3 These writings are collected in 4th ed., pp. 784 sqq., Freiburg 1910.the Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum, 5 On the teaching of HermesVols. i and 2, Irenopoli 1656. (-f 1831) and Giinther (+ 1863),
4 Blunt, Dictionary of Sects, etc., cfr. J. Kleutgen, S. J., Theologiep. 568. For a detailed analysis of der Vorzeit, Vol. Ill, pp. 457 sqq.,the Socinian teaching see A. Har- Miinster 1870.
tiack, Dogmengeschichte, Vol. Ill,
44 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
In such a system, needless to say, there was no room for
the Redemption, much less for a vicarious atonement.
Theosophy is subject to similar delusions. Being
radically Pantheistic, it regards sin_as_a cosmic factor
of equal necessity and importance with virtue. Good and
evil to the Theosophist are Two world-powers endowed
with equal rights. Sinjs__merejvja limitation of_jnfinity.
The Absolute Being alone, conceived as an impersonal
spirit, is unbounded and sinless. Each individual human
soul is part and parcel of the Absolute, and as such
its own God. In other words, tajD^dJ^_bejcomes_incar-nate in every human being. The human race may be said
to have beenTedeemeTByTJhrist only in the sense that Hewas the first to enlighten men on the true relationship
between the finite and the infinite, between good and evil.
The real redemption of man consists inJi^re^absorptioninto the infinite ocean of being, out of which he has tem-
pprarily_emerged like a
b) Though the Church has never formally (in
terminis) defined the doctrine of the vicarious
atonement,7 she has nevertheless inculcated the
substance of it so often and so vigorously that it
may be said to be one of the cardinal dogmas of
the Catholic religion. The Third General Council
of Ephesus (A.D. 431) solemnly defined: "If
any one therefore says that [Christ] offered Him-
e On modern Theosophy cfr. E. R. Hull, S. J., Studies in The-
Madame Blavatky s Isis Unveiled, osophy, 2nd ed., Bombay 1905; J
The Secret Doctrine, and Key to T. Driscoll in the Catholic Encyclo-
Theosophy; also the numerous writ- pedia, Vol. XIV, pp. 628 sqq.
ings of Annie Besant, especially her 7 Cfr. K. Martin, Cone. Vatican.
Esoteric Christianity; A. P. War- Document. Collcctio, p. 37. Fader-
rington, art. "Theosophy" in the born 1873.
Encyclopedia Americana, Vol. XV;
THE DOGMA 45
self up as a sacrifice for Himself, and not solely
for us,8
let him be anathema."9
Still more
clearly the Council of Trent: "If any one as
serts that this sin of Adam ... is taken away... by any other remedy than the. merit of the
one Mediator, our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath
reconciled us to God in His own blood, made unto
us justice, sanctification and redemption, ... let
him be anathema." In another place the sameCouncil says: "[Christ] by His most holy passion on the wood of the Cross merited justifica
tion for us and made satisfaction for us unto Godthe Father/ 11 The last-quoted phrase closely
resembles the technical terminology of the
Schools.
2. PROOF FROM SACRED SCRIPTURE. The vi
carious atonement is clearly inculcated both bythe Old and the New Testament, though not, of
course, in the technical terms of modern theology.
a) Isaias gives graphic expression to it in the
8 Kaloi>xl 5r] virep pbvuv im&v. D. N. lesu Christi, qui nos Deo
Here is the whole passage in Latin: reconciliavit in sanguine suo, factus"
Si quis ergo dicit, quod pro se nobis iustitia, sanctificatio et redemp-obtulisset [Christus] semetipsum tio, . . . anathema sit." Cone. Tri-oblationem et non potius pro nobis dent., Sess. V, can. 3 (Denzinger-solis, anathema sit." Bannwart, n. 790).
9 Cone. Ephes., can. 10 (Denzin- 11 "
Qui . . . sua sanctissima Pas-ger-Bannwart, Enchiridion, n. 122). sione in ligno crucis nobis iustifi-
Cfr. the Decretum pro lacobitis cationem meruit et pro nobis Deo(ibid., n. 711). Patri satisfecit." Cone. Trident.,
10 "
Si quis hoc Adae peccatum Sess. VI, cap. 7 (Denzinger-Bann-. . . per aliud remcdium asserit tolli wart, n. 799). We use Water-.quam per meritum unius mediatoris worth s translation.
46 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
famous prophecy which describes the suffering
of the "Servant of God/
The Messianic character of this prophecy is sufficiently
established by such New Testament texts as Mark XV,
28, Luke XXII, 37, Acts VIII, 33, I Pet. II, 22 sqq.12
We quote its salient passages :
"
Surely he hath borne
pur infirmities, and carried our sorrows, and we have
thought him as it were a leper, and as one struck by
God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our ini
quities, he was bruised for our sins ;.the chastisement
of our peace was upon him, and by his bruises we are
healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, every one
hath turned aside into his own way; and the Lord hath
laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was offered 13 be
cause it was his own will,14 and he opened not his mouth ;
he shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter. . . . For the
wickedness of my people have I struck him. . . . Be
cause his soul hath labored, he shall see and be filled;
by his knowledge shall this my just servant justify
many, and he shall bear their iniquities ... he hath
borne the sins of many, and hath prayed for the trans
gressors."15 The vicarious character of the
"
Ser
vant s"
suffering is asserted no less than eight times in
this passage : ( i )
" He hath borne our Infirmities ;
"
(2) He has "carried our sorrows;" (3) "He was
wounded for our iniquities ;
"
(4)" He was bruised for
our sins;" (5) The "chastisement of our peace was
12 The argument is well developed 14 On certain textual difficulties
by A. J. Maas, S. J., Christ in connected with the Hebrew word
Type and Prophecy, Vol. II, pp. na aneh, see Maas., /. c., p. 241*
231 sqq., New York 1895. note.
13 The Masoretic text has, he was 15 Is. LIII, 4-12.
called upon. (Cfr. Maas, /. c., p.
240, note.)
SCRIPTURAL PROOF tf
upon him;"16
(6) "By his bruises we are healed;"
(7)"
The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us
all;" (8) "He was offered because it was his ownwill."
17 The passage furthermore embraces all the es
sential elements of Christ s vicarious atonement, to wit:
(a) the substitution of the innocent Messias for guiltysinners; (b) the resulting remission of punishmentand healing of the evil-doers; (c) the manner in whichHe made satisfaction, i. e., His sacrificial death. 18
b) The New Testament inculcates the dogmaof the vicarious atonement both directly and in
directly.
) The texts which teach it directly nearly all
employ the phraseology of, and are dependentupon, Isaias. Take, e. g., the exclamation of Johnthe Baptist recorded in John I, 29: "Behold theLamb of God, behold him who taketh away thesin of the world/ The passage reads as fol
lows in the original Greek :
"
"I8e 6 d^o? TOV eoi
6 atpwv rriv afiapriav TOV KOO/WW." The afjiapria TOV Kooyxou
is original sin. The verb cfyew, like the Hebrewwords Kto and k? employed by Isaias,
19besides
tollere, i. e., to take away, also means ferre or
portare, i. e., to assume or bear for another.St. Peter no doubt had the prophecy of Isaias
16 That is: The punishment which inferred from the nature of the suf-was to procure our peace with God fering. Cfr. Maas, Christ in Typeand with men, was inflicted on him. and Prophecy, Vol. II p 240 note
17 In this clause the prophet rather 18 Cfr. F. Feldmann, Der Knechtdescribes the detail of the Servant s Gottes in Isaias, Ch. 40-55, Frei-sufferings than insists on its vicari- burg, 1907.ous character; but this, too, may be 19 Is. LIII, 4 and n.
48 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
in mind when he wrote : "Who his own self bore
our sins20
in his body upon the tree ... bywhose stripes you were healed. For you were
as sheep going astray ;but you are now converted
to the shepherd and bishop of your souls."21
This text clearly inculcates Christ s vicarious
atonement and describes its concrete realization
(His death on the Cross).
St. Paul is equally clear. Cfr. 2 Cor. V, 21 :
"Him, who knew no sin, he hath made sin for
us, that we might be made the justice of Godin him." The graphic phrase ^p ypvv a/xapnav
tTrolrjffev avrov either means: He hath made him
who was sinless a sinner, or, more probably, Hehath made him who was sinless a sacrifice for
sin.22 In either case St. Paul asserts the dogma
of Christ s vicarious atonement.
Special importance attaches to the many NewTestament texts which speak of man as being
"bought" or "purchased" by the Precious Blood
of Christ. Cfr. I Cor. VI, 20: "For you are
bought with a great price."
23I Pet. I, 18 sq. :
". . . you were not redeemed 24 with corruptible
things as gold and silver, . . . but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb unspottedand undefiled." These terms are borrowed from
20 avriveyicev, 23
21 i Pet. II, 24 sq. 24 Redempti esiis,
22&fjLaprla
= sacrificium pro pec- Cfr. also Rom. Ill, 24, Eph. I, 7,
cato. Cfr. Gal. Ill, 13. i Tim. II, 6.
SCRIPTURAL PROOF 49
legal and mercantile usage; they mean that menwho groaned in the bondage of sin were re
garded as free or redeemed by God as soon as
Christ had offered His Precious Blood for them.
All of which proves ( i ) the reality of the atone
ment and (2) its vicarious character.
ft) Indirectly the Bible teaches the vicarious
atonement in all those passages in which Christ
is called the "second Adam" and contrasted with
the progenitor of the human race. Cfr. Rom.
V, 14 sqq. : "Death reigned from Adam unto
Moses, even over them also who have not sinned
after the similitude of the transgression of Adam,who is a figure of him who was to come. But
not as the offence, so also the gift. For if bythe offence of one, many died; much more the
grace of God, and the gift, by the grace of one
man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.. . . For if by one man s offence death reigned
through one; much more they who receive abun
dance of grace, and of the gift, and of justice,
shall reign in life through one, Jesus Christ.
Therefore, as by the offence of one, unto all mento condemnation; so also by the justice of one,
unto all men to justification of life," etc. i Cor.
XV, 22 sqq.: "As in Adam all die, so also in
Christ all shall be made alive," etc.
Adam, the physical and juridical head of the human
race, sinned vicariously, because he was the representa-
50 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
tive of all;in a similar manner Jesus Christ represented
the whole race when He restored it to justice. St. Paul s
parallel would be meaningless if our Saviour had not
acted as the representative of the entire human race
when he died on the Cross. If His role as Redeemer had
been confined to preaching and giving a good example, as
the Socinians allege, what need was there of His suffering
a cruel death ? And if He . died, not in our stead,
but merely"
for our benefit," why do not the Socinians
acclaim the holy martyrs as so many redeemers? Christ
became our"
mediator" and
"
redeemer"
in the Scrip
tural sense of these terms only by complementing His
teaching and example by an act of true and adequate
satisfaction for our sins. It is only in this sense that
St. Peter, "filled with the Holy Ghost," was able to
exclaim :
"
Neither is there salvation in any other
name,"25 and St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians :
"
Is
Christ divided? Was Paul then [who was also a
teacher of nations_and a martyr] crucified for youT^orwere you baptized in the name of Paul ?
" 26It is only
(in
this way that the name "
Jesus"
receives its full
significance as" Redeemer "
or"
Saviour"
of the human
race.
In view of the texts quoted it is incomprehensible howthe Modernists can allege that
"
the doctrine of the sacri
ficial death of Christ is not evangelical, but originated
with St. Paul." (See the Syllabus of Pius X, prop. 38).
3. PROOF FROM TRADITION. The Fathers
nearly all couched their teaching on the vicarious
atonement in Scriptural terms.
a) They did not treat purely soteriological
25 Acts IV, 12. 26 i Cor. I, 13.
PROOF FROM TRADITION 51
questions ex professo, but merely adverted to
them upon occasion. That the Socinians madeno attempt to base their teaching upon Patristic
texts, was due to the fact that Hugo Grotius had
triumphantly demonstrated the vicarious atone
ment from the writings of the Fathers. 27 Wewill quote but two of the many available texts.
"In accordance with the will of God," says St.
Clement of Rome, "our Lord Jesus Christ gaveHis blood for us, and His flesh for our flesh, andHis soul for our souls/
7 28 And St. Polycarp :
"Let us ever cling to our hope and the pledge29
of our righteousness, which is Christ Jesus, whobore our sins in His own body on the tree, . . .
and endured everything for our sakes, that we
might live in Him/ 30
b) On its philosophical side the dogma of the
vicarious atonement underwent a process of de
velopment, as is evidenced by the part which someof the older Fathers and ecclesiastical writers as
signed to the Devil.
:c The question arose as follows : God and Satan are
as it were two masters who contend for the possessionof mankind. Hence men by departing from God fell
27 H. Grotius, Defensio Fidei Ca- tavius, De Incarn., XII, 9 andtholicae de Veritate Satisfactions, Thomassin, Dogm. Theol., IX, 7.
published in 1614. Cfr. also Dorholt, Die Lehre von28 Ep. ad Cor., I, 49, 6. der Genugtuung Christi, pp. 62 sqq.,29
TU> dppapwvt. Paderborn 1891 and J. F. S. Muth,30 Ep. ad Phil., 8. Many addi- Die Heilstat Christi als stellvertre-
tional proofs from the writings of tende Genugtuung, pp. 169 sqq.,the Fathers are to be found in Pe- Ratisbon 1904.
52 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
under Satan s power, by whom they are now kept in
bondage. As, moreover, men had fallen into his power,not unwillingly, but of their own choice, may we not
say that the Devil has over them a real right, a right
of property and a right of conquest? Hence, when Goddecided to free Satan s captives, was He not bound in
justice to recognize and take into consideration the
Devil s rights? Many of the Fathers answered this
question affirmatively."31
St. Irenaeus was the first to
insist on the Devil s alleged rights.32
Origen did not
hesitate to say that Christ" ransomed us with His own
blood from the power of Satan."33
This, in itself bias-\
phemous conception, which logically leads to the conclu- I
sion that Christ gave His blood, nay His very soul to
the Devil, was rejected by Adamantius (about 300),(
who indignantly branded it as"
all nonsense and bias- i
phemy."34 Saint Gregory of Nyssa followed in
Origen s footsteps. But by pushing the theory to its
logical conclusions, he unconsciously demonstrated its
absurdity.35
Origen s notion was formally rejected by
Gregory of Nazianztis, who declared that Christ s death
on the Cross effectively destroyed the tyranny of Satan.
He says :
" For man to be sanctified by the humanity of
God, it was necessary that He Himself should free us
from the tyrant, who had to be overcome by violence, and
bring us back to Himself through the mediation of His
31 J. Riviere, Le Dogme de la Doctrine of the Atonement, Vol. II,
Redemption, Paris, 1905, (English pp. 113 sqq.
translation by L. Cappadelta, in 2 33 In Matth., 18, 8; In loan., 6,
vols., London 1909). The above 35.
passage is quoted from Vol. II, pp. 34 TroXXr? P\a<r<t>rjfJios avoid. Dein sq. of the English translation. Recta in Deum Fide, I, 27 (Migne,Over one-half of the second volume P. G., XI, 1756 sq.).
is devoted to a discussion of " The 35 Cfr. Riviere-Cappadelta, TheDevil s Rights." Doctrine of the Atonement, Vol. II,
32 Cfr. Riviere-Cappadelta, The pp. 124 sqq.
THE ROLE OF THE DEVIL 53
Son."3G There was a modicum of truth in Origen s the
ory. By the sin of our first parents Satan had become,not indeed the absolute master of the human race, but the
instrument of divine wrath.37 But when Jesus Christ,
who was the Mediator between God and the human race,
gave adequate satisfaction to the offended Deity, the^reignof the Devil ceased. Very properly, therefore, does St.
Augustine38 attribute our release from the captivity of
Satan to the sacrificial character of Christ s death on
the Cross and His triumph over Satan to righteous
ness rather than might."
It pleased God," he says,"
that in order to the rescuing of man from the power of
the Devil, the Devil should be conquered, not by might,but by righteousness. . . . What, then, is the righteous
ness by which the Devil was conquered? What, except
the righteousness of Christ? In this redemption the
blood of Christ was given, as it were, as a price for
us, by accepting which the Devil was not enriched, but
bound, that we might be loosed from his bonds.":!1)
Hence, the redemption of man from the clutches of
Satan did not"
enrich"
our arch-enemy but enslaved
him, since the demands of righteousness were fulfilled.
It was St. Bernard of Clairvaux who first developed this
thought into the formal notion of vicarious atonement.
The prince of this world came and found nothing in
the Saviour," he writes;
"
and when he nevertheless
laid hands upon the innocent one, he rightly lost those
who were his captives, when He who owed nothing to
death, accepting the injury of death, rightly released him
who was guilty of sin, both from the debt of death and
36 De Agno Paschali, 22. teaching of St. Augustine cfr.
37 Cfr. John XII, 31; XIV, 30; a Riviere-Cappadelta, op. cit., II, 146Cor. IV, 4; Heb. II, 14. sqq.
38 De Trinit., IV, 13. On the 39 De Trinit., XIII, 13, 14, 15.
54 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
the power of the Devil. By what justice could this have
been exacted from man, since it was man who owed and
man who paid the debt? For if one died for all, [says
the Apostle, 2 Cor. V, 14], then all were dead : that,
namely, the satisfaction of one be imputed to all ... be
cause the one head and body is Christ. The head there
fore gave satisfaction for the members, Christ for His
bowels."40
Abelard, and especially St. Anselm, at length
delivered theology from"
a decaying1 doctrine which was
now superfluous, if not actually dangerous."41 The
abuse-of-power theory made way for St. Anselm s for
ensic theory of satisfaction, which, after having been
purged of its harsher features by St. Thomas, became
the common teaching of the Schoolmen.
Theology has a right, nay the duty, to subject this
theory, both in its original Patristic form and in the
shape which it assumed under the hands of the medieval
Scholastics, to respectful criticism. We do not deny that
the theory may be defensible within certain carefully de
fined limits. But as onesidedly developed by the Scholas-\
tics, it does not embody the whole truth which we are able \
to gather from Divine Revelation. Revelation contains
certain seed-thoughts which the Fathers and Schoolmen
failed to appreciate at their full value. The sacrifice of
the Divine Logos was dictated by infinite love and mercyas well as by strict justice. Cfr. John III, 16: "God
40"
Venit princeps huius tnundi Nam si unus (inquit) pro omnibus
ct in Salvatore non invenit quid- mortuus est, ergo omnes mortui sunt
quam. Et quum nihilominus inno- (2 Cor. V, 14) : ut videlicet satisfac-
centi manus iniecit, iustissime quos tio unius omnibus imfiutetur . . .
tenebat amisit, quando is qui morti quia caput et corpus unus cst
nihil debebat, accepta mortis iniuria Christus. Satisfecit ergo caput pro
iure ilium, qui obnoxius erat, et membris, Christus pro visceribus
mortis debit o et diaboli sohit do- suis." De Erroribus Abaelardi, cap.
minio. Qua enim iustitia id secundo 6.
ab homine exigeretur? Homo si- *! Riviere-Cappadelta, op. cit., II,
quidem qui debuit, homo qui sohit. 220.
SATISFACTION AND MERIT 55
so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son."42
God must not be conceived as an angry tyrant, who un
mercifully slays his Son in order to avenge himself on
the human race and thereby, as it were, to gratify the
Devil, who gloats over the misfortune of others. God is
just, but He is also a loving Father, who punishes His
wayward children in the person of His beloved Son to
show them the malice of sin by a terrible example. In
other words, we cannot harmonize all the revealed ele
ments of the atonement unless we give due emphasis to
the ethical factor. The purely forensic theory of satis
faction must be supplemented and deepened by the"
ethi
cal theory of reconciliation," which accentuates God s love
for Christ and the human race, and also the moral purposeof the Redemption, i. e., the internal redemption of man
by regeneration in God. Thus only shall we be able to
refute the objections more or less well founded
which Harnack 43 and Pfleiderer 44 have raised against
the theory of satisfaction championed by the Scholas
tics, notably St. Anselm.
4. THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN "SATISFAC
TION" AND "MERIT." Entitatively considered,
an act of satisfaction may also be a meritorious
act. Nevertheless there is both a logical and a
real distinction between satisfaction and merit as
such. Satisfaction, in the narrower sense of the
term, is reparation made for an offence, while
merit may be defined as a good work performed42 Cfr. also Eph. I, 3 sqq., II, 4 44 Religionsphilosophie, Vol. II,
sqq.; Tit. Ill, 4 sq., and i Pet. I, 3. 2nd ed., Berlin 1884, pp. 467 sqq.
43 Grundriss der Dogmengeschich-te, 4th ed., pp. 304 sqq.
56 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
for the benefit of another and entitled to a re
ward. 45Satisfaction supposes a creditor who
insists on receiving his just dues, merit a debtor
bound to give a reward. If the reward is a
matter of justice, we have a meritum de condigno,
if it is merely a matter of equity, a meritum de
congruo.The merits of Christ may be regarded from a
fourfold point of view : ( i ) As to their reality,
(2) as to the time when they were acquired, (3)
as to their object or purpose, and (4) as to the
scope of their application.
a) It is an article of faith that the Redeemer
gained merits for us.
Christ, says the Tridentine Council,"
merited justifi
cation for us by His most holy Passion on the wood of
the Cross." The same sacred Council employs the phrase :
"Per meritum unius mediatoris Domini nostri les-n
Christi" and anathematizes those who say, "Homines
sine Christi iustitia, per quam nobis mentit iustificari,
aut per earn ipsam formaliter iustos esse! 40 Isaias
regarded the Redemption as a meritorious work. Is.
LIII, 10 : "And the Lord was pleased to bruise him
in infirmity: if he shall lay down his life for sin, he
shall see a long-lived seed [i. e., spiritual progeny] and
the will of the Lord shall be prosperous in his hand."
Here satisfaction and merit are so nearly alike as to be
45" Meritum est opus bonum in Sess. V, can. 3; Sess. VI, can. 10.
favorem alterius mercede vel praemio Cfr. Denzinger-Bannwart, Enchiri-.
dignum." dion, n. 799. 790, 820.
wConc.Trid., Sess. VI, cap. 7;
THE MERITS OF CHRIST 57
materially identical; the Redeemer laid God under ob
ligation while satisfying His just claims. But since Hemerited not only grace for us, but likewise extrinsic
glory for Himself, His merits exceed the limits of the
satisfaction which He gave to His Heavenly Father, be
cause He did not need to give any satisfaction for Himself.
b) When did Christ perform His meritorious
actions? In attempting to answer this question
we must distinguish between the terminus a quoand the terminus ad quern.
Our Lord performed no meritorious actions (in the
technical sense of the term) outside of the period of His
earthly pilgrimage (status viae). Hence the terminus ad
quern was the moment of His death. 47 That this is the
teaching of Holy Scripture may be gathered from such
texts as John IX, 4 sq. ;Heb. IX, 12, X, n sqq. True,
St. Paul teaches that the glorified Redeemer continues to" make intercession for us in Heaven."
48 But the in
tercession He makes for us in Heaven is based on the
merits which He gained on earth and aims solely at the
application of these merits to individual men.
Which was the terminus a quo of our Lord s merito
rious actions? A man cannot perform any meritorious
deeds before he has attained to the full use of reason and
free-will, which generally occurs about the seventh year.
In the Godman Jesus Christ, human consciousness awokewhen the Godhead became hypostatically united with
manhood, that is to say, at the instant of His concep-
47 The question whether this limi- to an intestine necessity, is purelytation of Christ s meritorious action speculative, and will be discussed in
is based upon a positive and free Eschatology.decree of God, or whether it is due 48 Rom. VIII, 34; Heb. VII, 25.
58 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
tion.49 Hence the terminus a quo of His meritorious
actions was the first moment of His existence as God-
man.50
c) The principal object of Christ s meritorious
actions was the justification of sinners.
It is an article of faith that our Divine Saviour
merited for us the forgiveness of all sins, including
original sin, and, in addition, sanctifying grace. That the
actual graces required for and during the process of
justification also flow from the thesaurus of Christ s
merits, is a theologically certain conclusion.51Capreolus
denied it;
52 but the Tridentine Council, in teaching,"
Ipsius iustificationis exordium in adultis a Dei perChristum lesum praeveniente gratia sumendum esse"
evidently employs the phrase"
per Christum lesum "
in
the sense of"
per meritum Christi lesu." It is likewise
an article of faith that man, in the state of grace which
follows justification, receives all the graces and merits
which come to him solely from the treasury of the merits
of Jesus Christ.53 Our Lord Himself inculcates this bythe parable of the vine and its branches.54
Christ also merited a reward for Himself, which con
sists chiefly in His extrinsic glorification after death.
Cfr. Luke XXIV, 26 :
" Nonne haec oportuit pati Chri
stum et ita intrare in gloriam suamf Ought not Christ
to have suffered these things, and so to enter into his
glory?" Phil. II, 9:cc
Propter quod et Deus exaltavit
ilium et donavit illi nomen, quod est super onme nomen
49 Cfr. Pohle-Preuss, Christology, 53 Cfr. Cone. Trident., Sess. VI,
pp. 259 sqq. cap. 16; Sess. XIV, cap. 8. (Den-so Cfr. Heb. X, 5. zinger-Bannwart, n. 809, 904.)51 Cfr. 2 Tim. I, 9. 54 John XV, 5. On the grace of
f>2 Cfr. F. Stentrup, Soteriologia, predestination cfr. St. Thomas, S.
thes. 36. Theol., 33, qu. 19, art. 3.
THE MERITS OF CHRIST 59
For which cause God also exalted him, and hath givenhim a name which is above all names." Heb. II, 9:"
Videmus lesum propter passionem mortis gloria et
honore coronatum We see Jesus . . . for the sufferingof death, crowned with glory and honor." It is conse
quently unscriptural to hold, as Calvin did, that Christ s
love for the human race prompted Him to waive all
claims to His own honor.55
In determining the scope of Christ s merits, Saint
Thomas proceeds as follows :
"
Since every perfectionand noble quality must be attributed to Christ, it follows
that He possessed by merit whatever others possess
by merit, unless it be something which would detract
from His dignity and perfection more thancould be gained by merit."
50Hence, he continues,
"
Christ merited neither grace, nor knowledge, nor beati
tude of soul, nor Divinity (i. e., the Hypostatic Union).As only that can be merited which one does not yet possess, Christ would have lacked all these perfections,and therefore it is plain that He merited only such thingsas the glory of the body, and whatever pertains to its
extrinsic excellence, e. g., the ascension, adoration, etc."57
d) The question: Who participates in the merits ofChrist? coincides with that regarding the universalityof the atonement, which we shall treat below, Sect. 2, Art.2.
58
65 Cfr. Bellarmine, De Christo, V, 58 On the whole subject dealt within this subdivision of our treatise
565". TheoL, 33, qu. 19, art. 3. consult Pesch, Praelectiones Dog-si L c. Cfr. Simar, Lehrbuch der maticae, Vol. IV, 3rd ed., pp. 252
Dogmatik, Vol. I, 4th ed., pp. 532 Sqq., Friburgi 1909.sqq., Freiburg 1899.
SECTION 2
THE PROPERTIES OF CHRIST S VICARIOUS ATONE
MENT
ARTICLE i
INTRINSIC PERFECTION OF THE ATONEMENT
Christ s vicarious atonement is intrinsically perfect and
comprises within its scope all sins and all sinners.
The intrinsic perfection of Christ s vicarious atone
ment manifests itself in three ascending stages, which
are technically called adequacy, rigorousness, and super
abundance.
By adequate atonement we understand a satisfaction
which completely and fully repairs the offence com
mitted, or, at least, is accepted as a full reparation by
the person offended. If the satisfaction rendered is of
such high intrinsic merit that the offended person is in
justice compelled to accept it, it is called rigorous. If
it exceeds the offence committed, it is superabundant.
Thesis I: The satisfaction which Christ made for
our sins was adequate, i. e., fully sufficient.
This thesis embodies the common teaching of
a majority of Catholic theologians.
Proof. The reality of Christ s vicarious
atonement is an article of faith, with which we60
ADEQUACY OF THE ATONEMENT 61
have already dealt (supra, Sect. i). In the
present thesis we are merely concerned withits^
intrinsic properties. As the Church has neverdenned these, the Scotists were free to estimate
them differently than the majority of Catholic
divines.
The Scotists and the Nominalists hold that Christ s
vicarious atonement derives its adequacy not from its
own intrinsic merit, but from the accidental circumstanceof its
"
extrinsic acceptation"
by God. Suarez rejectsthis theory as
"
neither probable, nor pious, nor suffi
ciently in accordance with the faith."1 This is a per
fectly just criticism, since both Holy Scripture andTradition declare that the satisfaction which Christ madefor us was equivalent to the offence inherent in sin.
a) Holy Scripture distinctly declares that wewere
"bought" with a"price/
2 and that this
price was the Precious Blood of our Lord. Cfr.
i Pet. I, 18 sq. : ". . . you were not redeemedwith corruptible things, ... but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb unspotted andundented." How could the blood of Christ becalled
"precious" if its value was not equivalent to the offence for the reparation of whichit was shed? St. Paul says: "You are boughtwith a great price."
3This phrase likewise indi
cates that the satisfaction given by our Divine Redeemer was equivalent to the guilt of sin.
1 De Incarn., disp. 4, sect. 3, n. n. 3 Pretio magno, TIUTJS i Cor.2 Pretium, \trpov. VI, 20.
62 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
Moreover, the Bible tells us that the Godman im
molated Himself in expiation for our sins.
Hence the satisfaction He gave to His Heavenly
Father must be of equal value with Himself, and
therefore, to say the least, adequate.
Tim II, 5 sq.: "There is one God, and one
mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus:
who gave himself a redemption for all (""*-
TPov]" The graphic term <WXvTPov, which St.
Paul here employs instead of plain w^o,, shows
that he conceives "the redemption for all" as a
full equivalent for sin. "Quanta iniuna, tanta
satisfactio."In fact, it is only in this hypothe
sis that we can understand why the Apostle
attaches such tremendous importance to the
singleness of our Lord s sacrifice on the Cross, in
contradistinction to the multiplicity of the inef
fective offerings of the Levites. Cfr. Heb.
12 and 28 : "Byhis own blood he entered once
into the holies, having obtained eternal redemp
tion. ... So also Christ was offered once to
exhaust the sins of many."
b) Patristic texts in support of our thesis wil
be found infra, p. 71- A convincing theologi
cal argument for the adequacy of the atone
ment may be deduced from the concept of our
Lord s natural mediatorship (supra, Ch. I, Sect.
, ,.lSem,l,l*ai.
ADEQUACY OF THE ATONEMENT 63
a) JBjL-XJrtue ofjhe Hypostatic Union all hu
man actions of the Godman are infinitely valuable
in the eyes of God, independently of their extrinsic acceptation, because a theandric merit de
rives its full value solely from the infinite dignityof the Logos.
6 But an atonement, the expiatory
power of which is, morally considered, infinite,
cannot be conceived otherwise than as adequate.
/?) The Scotists and the Nominalists are con
sequently in error when they teach that the meri
torious and expiatory value of Christ s vicarious
atonement, though extrinsically infinite becauseof its benevolent acceptation on the part of God,
7
is not so intrinsically, i. e., on account of its ownimmanent worth. 8
Scotus own teaching on this
point is uncertain. 9 But the great majority of
Scotist theologians, including such later authors
as Frassen, De Rada, and Hen.no, undoubtedlyunderestimated the meritoriousness of Christ s
theandric operation by asserting that it became
infinitely valuable only through the condescensionof God in deigning to accept it as such. The Scotists admit that Christ s human actions, because
performed by the exalted person of the Godman,were invested with a certain equitable claim to
6 Cfr. Pohle-Preuss, Christology, o Scotus, Comment, in Quatuorpp. 161 sqq. Libras Sent., Ill, dist. 19. Hauzeur
7 Infinitas extrinseca ob benignam and a few other Scotists attemptedDei acceptationem. to reconcile their master s teaching
8 Infinitas intrinseca ob valorem with the senteniia communis, but in
innatum. vain
64 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
be received as of infinite value by a loving God;
but they deny that these actions can by their own
power attain to infinitude. This they declare
to be impossible because these actions are essen
tially the product of a finite (human) nature.
As the intrinsic or bullion value of a coin need
not equal the extrinsic valuation stamped upon
its face, they say, so the human actions of our
Saviour were in themselves of a merely finite
value, but capable of being raised to a higher valu
ation by God.
Mastrius and a few others restrict the Scotistic
theory to the thesis (which no one denies) that,
to render His atonement valid in actu secundo,
our Divine Saviour had first to assure Himself
of its acceptation on the part of God, not indeed
per moduni principii dignificantis, but per modiun
conditionis praeviae. This is beside the question.
What the Scotists assert is that the satisfaction
which Christ made for our sins was intrin
sically insufficient or inadequate, and that what
it lacked in intrinsic merit was supplied byGod s extrinsic acceptation. Their basic error
consists in this that they fail to distinguish be
tween the physical entity and the ethical value of
Christ s meritorious actions, confounding the
finite character of the former with the infinity of
the latter. Justly, therefore, do the Thomists 1(
10 Cfr. Billuart, DC Incarn,, diss. 19, art. 5.
ADEQUACY OF THE ATONEMENT 65
insist that the Hypostatic Union endows a phys
ically finite act with a morally infinite value, be
cause it is the infinite Divine Person that performsthat act as principiuni quod, employing the finite
nature merely as principiuni quo. Were we to
trace the Scotist theory to its sources, we should
probably find that its originators had no clear con
ception of the character of theandric operationand misconceived the true nature and scope of
the Hypostatic Union. 11
Thesis II: The satisfaction which Christ made for
our sins was not only adequate, but rigorous, accord
ing to the standard of strict justice.
Proof. In the preceding thesis we saw that
Christ s vicarious atonement was quantitatively
adequate, i. e., equivalent to all the sins of mankind. We have now to show that it was ade
quate also in quality, i. e., measured by the stand
ard of strict justice (secundum rigorem iustitiae).
In other words, it was not necessary for God s mercyto supply anything over and above the satisfaction ren
dered by Christ, since this satisfaction fully covered all
just claims.
This thesis does not embody an article of faith. It is
not even a theological conclusion. But it voices the
11 On the uncertain teaching of gen, 1907, pp. 241 sqq. On theScotus cfr. P. Minges, O. F. M., general subject of this thesis cfr.
Compend. Theol. Dogmat. Specialis, also De Lugo, De Myst. Incarn.,Vol. I, pp. 213 sqq., Monachii 1901; disp. 6, sect, i; Scheeben, Dog-Theologische Quartalschrift, Tubin- matik, Vol. Ill, 251, Freiburg 1882.
66 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
more general teaching of Catholic divines, especially of
the Thomist school, and of Suarez, Tanner, Gregory of
Valentia, Franzelin, and others. In a limited way we
may also number among its defenders those Scotist the
ologians who, like Mastrius, admit that the atonement
satisfied divine justice, though not to its full extent.
a) It pertains to the dogmatic treatise De Deo
Uno 12to show that the only kind of relation
possible between God and His creatures is a
free but real relation of rights and duties based
upon the veracity and fidelity of the Creator.
Christ s vicarious atonement embodies all the con
ditions necessary and sufficient to establish a re
lation of strict and rigorous justice. These con
ditions are five in number, to wit: () Equiva
lence of debit and credit; () difference of person
between debtor and creditor; (y) payment of the
debt out of the debtor s own means; (8) absence
of all other indebtedness ; () payment of the debt
in person or through a bondsman. These condi
tions are selected somewhat arbitrarily, and it is
not easy to prove that Christ fulfilled them all.
For this reason some theologians prefer not to
speak of a rigor iustitiae. However, the senten-
tia communior rests on fairly solid ground.
a) That Christ fulfilled the first of the conditions
enumerated was shown in Thesis I.
ft) Condition number two demands that debtor and
12 Cfr. Pohle-Preuss, God: His Knowability, Essence and Attributes,
pp. 457 sqq.
ADEQUACY OF THE ATONEMENT 67
creditor must be separate and distinct persons. "Satis-
factio debet esse ad alterum." No one can be his owndebtor. How could Christ fulfil this condition? Since
He is Himself God, is it not physically the same personthat merits and rewards ? This difficulty cannot be solved
by the retort that Christ renders satisfaction to God the
Father. Humanity s creditor was not the Father alone,
but the whole Trinity.13 The right solution seems to be
this: In atoning for our sins, Christ acts both as manand as God, and hence makes satisfaction virtually as a
double person: (i) the man Jesus makes satisfaction to
God for our sins in His human nature, as if He were a
different person from the Logos; (2) The Logos, as God,
accepts this satisfaction. If Christ, as man, was able to
practice the virtues of obedience and worship towards
Himself as God, it can be no contradiction to say that,
as man, He gave satisfaction to Himself, qua God, ac
cording to the strict measure of justice.
We must, however, beware of misinterpreting the ex
pression duplex persona moralis, as Berruyer (a pupil of
Hardouin) did when he asserted that the humanity of our
Lord was a quasi-suppositum, to which, as to a distinct
human person, must be ascribed certain actions of Christ
which had no intrinsic hypostatic connexion with the Per
son of the Logos.14
y) The third of the conditions enumerated above is
13 "What does it mean to be the and iniquity of men." Ennar. in
mediator between God and men?" Ps., 29, 2, i.
asks St. Augustine, and answers the 14 On this dangerous error see
question as follows: "It means to Legrand, De Incarn., diss. n, Paris
be a mediator not between the 1860; von Schazler, Das Dogma vonFather and men, but between God der Menschwerdung Gottes, 24,
and men. What is God? He is Freiburg 1870; Scheeben, Dogmatik,Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. . . . Vol. Ill, pp. 29 sqq., Freiburg 1882;Christ was constituted mediator be- B. Dorholt, Die Lehre von der Ge-
tween this Trinity and the infirmity nugtuung Christ i, pp. 435 sqq., Pa-derborn 1891.
68 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
that the debtor must pay his liability out of his own be
longings."
Satisfactio debet fieri ex bonis propriis."
Did Christ fulfil this condition ? As He was a man, His
power of giving satisfaction for our sins (vis merendi sive
satisfaciendi) must have been a grace, L e., a free gift
of God, and consequently the atonement cannot have
been a payment made by Him out of His own means.
Even the supernatural merits of a justified man, being due
to pure grace, cannot satisfy rigorous justice. Indeed we
may broadly say that, as man possesses nothing of his own,but has received everything he has from God, whether bycreation or by grace, so Christ s human nature, which was
the principium quo of His meritorious and expiatory ac
tion, was not His own but a gift of the debtor, i. e., God.
This objection may be met as follows: It was not the
man Jesus, but the Godman, whose meritorious actions
made satisfaction for our sins. In other words, not the
human nature of Christ as such made satisfaction, but the
Divine Logos through the functions of His human na
ture, which, by virtue of the Hypostatic Union, is so inti
mately united to the Logos that He possesses and governsit with absolute sovereignty as its sole principium quod.
To attribute such a sovereign control over the humannature of Christ to the Father and the Holy Ghost,
i. e., to the Trinity qua Godhead, would be tantamount
to asserting that it was not the Logos alone who was
made flesh, but the whole Blessed Trinity.15 But this is
manifestly repugnant. The human nature of Christ was
the personal property of the Logos, and the satisfaction
He made through that nature was made ex bonis pro
priis.16
8) We come to the fourth condition :
"
Satisfactio
15 Cfr. Pohle-Preuss, Christology, is Cfr. Ysambert, De Myst. In-
pp. 132 sqq. earn., disp. 6, art. 2-3, Paris 1639.
ADEQUACY OF THE ATONEMENT 69
debet esse ex alias indebitis." Satisfaction must be
made by means of something which the debtor does not
already owe to his creditor on some other account. It
may be argued that this condition, too, remained unful
filled in the case of our Divine Saviour, because whatever
He did and suffered, He was obliged to do and suffer
for reasons other than that prompting the atonement,such as gratitude and obedience to God, a feeling of de
pendence, piety, etc. Can an action to which one is
obliged by so many titles be in strict justice regarded as
meritorious?
Suarez offers two solutions of this difficulty, (i)The rigor iitstitiac, he says, is to be measured purely and
solely by the titulus iustitiae. Even if a debtor were obli
gated by gratitude towards his creditor, he would never
theless satisfy rigorous justice as soon as he paid the last
farthing of his indebtedness. Though other duties re
mained, justice as such would be satisfied. (2) Theintrinsic merit of the satisfaction which Christ madefor our sins is infinite, and as such capable of satisfying,
not merely one single title of justice, but many, nay, an
infinite number of such titles. Consequently justice can
be rigorously satisfied even though there are other titles
and duties.
e) The last condition is that satisfaction must be made
by the debtor for himself."
Satisfactio debet fieri prose ipso, non pro alienis." Strictly speaking, Christ did
not fulfil this condition, because He made atonement for
others. It is to be noted, however, that the rigor iustitiae
can be satisfied by proxy, provided the substitute is
formally accepted by the creditor and the proportionbetween debt and reparation is strictly observed. Let it
not be objected that where an offence has been committedthe offended person waives his claim to strict justice by
70 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
surrendering his right to personal satisfaction. He does
not remit the debt, nor any part thereof, but merely com
mutes it into something of equal value. 17
Thesis III: The satisfaction which Christ made
for our sins was more than adequate and rigorous ;it
was superabundant.
This thesis may be characterized as"
coin-
munis," since it is held by practically all theolog
ical schools.
Proof, a) A Scriptural argument may be
drawn from St. Paul s antithetical sentences in
tracing the analogy between Adam and Christ.
Cfr. Rom. V, 15: "But not as the offence, so
also the gift. For if by the offence of one manydied ;
much more 18 the grace of God, and the
gift, by the grace of one man, Jesus Christ, hath
abounded unto many."And even more point
edly Rom. V, 20: "Where sin abounded,- grace
did more abound/ 21 The Apostle here distinctly
asserts that Christ gave superabundant satisfac
tion for our sins. The sin was great, but the
atonement and the graces flowing therefrom are
still greater.22
17 Cfr. on the subject of these 18 Multo magis, TroXXw /J,a\\ov.
conditions and their fulfilment by 19 In plures abundavit, els rovs
Christ: Franzelin, De Verbo Incarn., iro\\ovs eirepiaaevafv-thes. 47, Rome 1881 (new edition, 20 Abundavit, eTr\e6vO,ffev,
1910); B. Dorholt, Die Lehre von 21 Superabundant gratia, vircpe-
der Genugtuung Christi, pp. 424 sqq., Trepiffaevo ei rj ^apts-Paderborn 1891; Tepe, lust. Theol, 22 Cfr. Eph. i, 3-8; John X, 10.
pp. 639 sqq., Paris 1896.
THE ATONEMENT SUPERABUNDANT 71
b) The Fathers generally held that the ade
quacy of the atonement can be most effectively
demonstrated from its superabundant meritori-
ousness.
Thus St. Cyril of Jerusalem trenchantly argues:" He who died for us was of no less value. He was
not a visible lamb, no mere man, nor yet an angel,
but the incarnate God. The wickedness of sinners was
not as great as the righteousness of Him who died for
us. Our sins were not equal to the justice of Him whodied for us."
23St. Chrysostom exemplifies this truth as
follows :
" Our experience has been like that of a manwho was cast into prison with his wife and children and
servants for a debt of ten oboli, and another man came
and plumped down not only ten oboli, but ten thousand
gold talents, and then led the prisoner into the royal
chamber, placed him on an exalted throne, and allowed
him to share in the highest honors. . . . For Christ paidfar more than we owed, and in a larger measure, like as
the infinite ocean exceeds in magnitude a tiny drop of
water."24
c) If Christ s vicarious atonement was super
abundantly meritorious, that is to say, far in ex
cess of the sins for which it was made, its intrin
sic worth must have been actually infinite. This
inference is demanded by all the rules of theological logic, and hence we need not wonder that
Suarez lays it down as the common teaching of
MCatech., 33, c. 13. Cfr. also B. Dorholt, Die Lehre von24 Horn, in Ep. ad Rom., 10, 2. der Genngtuung Christi, pp. 376
Additional Patristic texts apud Pe- sqq., 419 sqq.; Muth, Die Heilstat
tav., XII, 9 and Thomassin, IX, 9. Christi, pp. 228 sqq.
72 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
Catholic divines that "the actions of Christ pos
sessed a value which was absolutely and strictly
infinite in making satisfaction and acquiring
merits before God."25
a) St. Thomas demonstrates this proposition by a the
ological argument based on the infinite dignity of the God
man." The dignity of Christ s flesh," he says,
" must not
be estimated solely by the nature of the flesh, but by the
assuming person ;it was the flesh of God, hence its dig
nity is infinite."2G As a matter of fact, the intrinsic moral
value of an action varies in proportion to the dignity
of him who performs it, and therefore the actions of a
person of infinite dignity, when offered in satisfaction for
an offence, must be infinitely meritorious.
To demonstrate the infinite value of Christ s vicari
ous atonement, it is not necessary to have recourse to
its superabundant merit; the proposition follows as a
corollary from the fact of its mere adequacy. If no
one but a Godman was able to give adequate satisfaction
for our sins, each and every one of Christ s theandric
actions, even the most insignificant, must have been suffi
cient, nay more than sufficient, for the purposes of the
atonement, because each and every action performed by
a Godman is by its very nature infinitely meritorious.
As to the question, why the meritorious actions of our
Lord had of necessity to culminate in His dolorous pas
sion and death, St. Thomas says :
"
If we regard the
amount paid for the redemption of the human race, any
suffering undergone by Christ, even without death, would
25 "Opera Christi Domini habuisse tenableness of the Scotistic theory
valorem absolute et simplidter in- of extrinsic acceptation v. supra,
finitum ad satisfaciendum et meren- pp. 63 sqq.
dum apud Deum." De Incarn., 26 S. TheoL, 33, qu. 48, art. 2, ad
disp. 4, sect. 4, n. 3. On the un- 3. Cfr. Suarez, op. cit., n. 17 sqq.
THE ATONEMENT SUPERABUNDANT 73
have sufficed for the redemption of the human race, on
account of the infinite dignity of His person. . . . But
if we regard the payment of the price, it must be ob
served that no other suffering less than Christ s death was
deemed sufficient by God the Father and by Christ Himself to redeem the human race."
27
0) That the satisfaction which Christ made for
our sins was infinite, may also be inferred from
certain utterances (though they are not ex-ca
thedra decisions) of the Holy See. Among the
propositions of Bajus condemned by Pope Pius Vin the year 1567 is the following: "The works
of justice and temperance performed by Christ
derived no additional value from the dignity of
His person."28 Hence it is Catholic teaching
that the actions of Christ derived a higher value
from the "dignity of His Person." How high is
this value to be rated? Evidently it must have
corresponded to the infinite dignity of the God-
man, which is merely another way of saying that
it was infinite.
A far more important pronouncement for our
present purpose is this from the Bull "Unigeni-
27 "Si ergo loquamur de redemp- neris a Deo Patre et Christo aliae
tione humani generis quantum ad passiones Christi absque morte."
quantitatem pretii, sic quaelibet pas- Quodlib. 2, art 2. Cfr. Dorholt, op.
sio Christi etiam sine morte suffecis- cit., pp. 405 sqq.
set ad redemptionem humani ge- 28 "Opera iustitiae et temperan-neris propter infinitam dignitatem tiae, quas Christus fecit, ex dignitate
personae . . . Si antem loquamur personae operantis non traxeru.nl
quantum ad deputationem pretii, sic maiorem valorem." Prop. 19 (Den-dicendum est quod non sunt depu- zinger-Bannwart, Enchiridion, n.
tatae ad redemptionem humani ge- 1019).
74 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
tus" of Pope Clement VI, A. D. 1343: "He is
known to have shed, not a little drop of blood,
though this would have sufficed for the redemp
tion of the entire human race, because of the [Hy-
postatic] Union with the Logos, but streams
of it, like unto a river. . . . That the mercy in
volved in such a large effusion [of blood] be not
rendered vain, empty, and superfluous, He laid up
for the Church militant a copious treasure, which
the good Father desires to dispense to his children,
in order that it may become an infinite store-house
for men, and that those who make use of it mayshare in the friendship of God/ 29
Pope Clem
ent, in issuing his Bull, did not intend to define
the dogmatic teaching of the Church with regard
to this "infinite treasure." Nor does the document
contain any clear expression as to whether Christ s
merits are to be conceived as actually or po
tentially infinite. Hence the above-quoted words
cannot be said to constitute a binding dogmatic
definition. We may, however, safely assume that
Clement VI intended to represent the treasure of
Christ s merits as actually infinite, for this is the
obvious meaning of his words, considered both in
:29 " Non guttam sanguinis modi- tio redderetur, thesaurum militanti
cam, quae tamen propter unionem Ecclcslae acquisivit, volens suis
ad Verbum pro redemptione totius thesaurizare filiis pius Pater, ut sic
humani generis suffecisset, sed co- sit infinites thesaurus hominibus,
piose velut quoddam profluvium nos- quo qui usi sunt Dei amicitiae par-
citur effudisse . . . Quantum ergo ticipes sunt effecti." Denzinger
e.vinde, ut nee supervacua, inanis e\ Bannwart, Enchiridion, n. 550.
superflua tantae effusionis misera-
CHRIST DIED FOR ALL 75
themselves and in connection with the context.
The doctrine of the superabundant merits of
Jesus Christ and His Saints forms the groundwork of the Catholic teaching on indulgences,
which we shall explain more fully in a later
volume of this series.30
ARTICLE 2
EXTRINSIC PERFECTION OR UNIVERSALITY OF THEATONEMENT
If, as we have shown in the preceding Article, the
satisfaction made for our sins by Christ was intrinsically
perfect, there is a priori ground for assuming that it
must have embraced all men without exception. In matter of fact the universality of the atonement objectively
coincides with the universality of God s will to save the
entire human race (vohmtas salvifica), Here we shall
merely touch upon a few important points bearing on the
Redemption.
Thesis I : Christ died for all the faithful, not onlyfor the predestined.
This proposition is strictly de fide.
Proof. The predestined are those who actu
ally attain to eternal salvation. Of the "faith
ful/5
i. e., those who have the true faith, many are
unfortunately lost.
a) Predestinarianism was taught by Calvin,
and also by the younger Jansenius, who hereti-
30 In connection with the Sacrament of Penance.
76 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
cally asserted that"
It savours of Semi-Pelagian-
ism to say that Christ died, or shed His blood,
for all men without exception."1 This proposi
tion was censured as "false, foolhardy, and scan
dalous" by Innocent X, who added that, "under
stood in the sense that Christ died for the salva
tion of the predestined only," Jansenius thesis is
furthermore "impious, blasphemous . . . and
heretical." Consequently it must be accepted as
an article of faith that Christ died also for those
who were not predestined. These are the "faith
ful,"i. e. (in the New Testament) all who have
received the Sacrament of Baptism, be they in
fants or adults. For all baptized Christians are
bound to accept the Creed, which says that Christ
"descended from Heaven for us men and for our
salvation."2
b) Sacred Scripture is so clear on this point
that we may well marvel at the existence of
Predestinarianism. St. Paul must have had the
"faithful" in mind when he wrote to the Thes-
salonians: "For God hath not appointed us
unto wrath, but unto the purchasing of salva
tion by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us."
Again, Christ Himself, assuredly the most faith-
i "Semipelagianum est dicere, 2 "... qui propter nos homines
Christum pro omnibus omnino ho- et propter nosiram salutem de-
minibus mortuum esse out sanguinem scendit de coelis."
fudisse." Prop. Damn. lansenii, 5 3 i Thess. V, 9 sq.
(Denzinger-Bannwart, Enchiridion,
n. 1096).
CHRIST DIED FOR ALL 77
ful exponent of the Divine Will, in the touchingprayer which He pronounced as the High Priest
of humanity, included all the faithful, in fact,
indirectly, the whole human race. Cfr. JohnXVII, 20 sq. : "Non pro eis [scil. Apostolis]autem rogo tantum, sed et pro eis qui credituri
sunt* per verbwn eorum in me, . . . ut credat
mundus* quia tu me misisti And not for them
[i. e., the Apostles] only do I pray, but for themalso who through their word shall believe in me;. . . that the world may believe that thou hastsent me."
c) The teaching of the Fathers on this pointis copiously expounded by Petavius,
6 and weneed not expatiate on it here.
7
Thesis II : Christ died for all men without exception.
This thesis may be qualified as "saltern fidei
proximo,!
Proof. The Provincial Council of Quiercy(A. D. 853) defined against Gottschalk: "As
there never was, is or will be any man whosenature was not assumed by our Lord JesusChrist, so there never was, is or will be any manfor whom He has not suffered; though not all
4Trepc TUV TTiffrevovTuv. Augustine s teaching by the Jansen-iva. o Koaftos Trio-reiV?/. ists consult Dechamps, De HaeresiDe Incarn., XIII, 2 sq. Janseniana, 1. II, disp. 7.
7 On the misrepresentation of St.
8
78 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
are redeemed by the mystery of His passion/
Pope Alexander VIII, A. D. 1690, formally con
demned the proposition that "Christ gave Him
self for us as an oblation to God, not for the
elect only, but for all the faithful, and for the
faithful alone."9 The Tridentine Council defines
the dogmatic teaching of the Church on this point
as follows: "Him [Christ] God hath proposed
as a propitiator, through faith in His blood, for
our sins;and not for our sins only, but also for
those of the whole world."
a) This Tridentine teaching is thoroughly
Scriptural, in fact it is couched in the very lan
guage of Holy Writ. Cfr. i John II, 2 : "Et
ipse est propitiation
pro peccat-is nostris, non pro
nostris aiitein tantum, sed etiam pro totius
mundi 12 He is the propitiation for our sins:
and not for ours only, but also for those of the
whole world." i Tim. II, 6 must be interpreted
in consonance with the text just quoted. "Qui
8 "Christus Jesus D. N., sicut nul- electis, sed pro omnibus el soils fide-
lus homo est, fuit vcl erit, cuhts no- libus." (Denzinger-Bannwart,
tura in illo assumpta non fuerit, ita chiridion, n. 1294.)
nullus est, fuit vel erit homo, pro io"Hunc proposuit Deus propi-
quo passus non fuerit, licet non tiatorem per fidem in sanguine ip-
omnes passionis eius mysterio re- sius pro peccatis nostris, non solum
dimantur." The controversies inci- outem pro nostris, sed etiam pro to-
dent to the Council of Valence (A. tius mundi." Cone. Trid., Sess. VI,
D. 855) were due to a misunder- cap. 2 (Denzinger-Bannwart, n.
standing. Cfr. B. Dorholt, Die 794)
Lehre -von der Genugtuung Christi, n tXao-^os-
pp. 323 sqq. i2clXXa Kal irepl 6Xoi> rov KOC-
9 "... dedit semetipsum pro no- /JLOV-
bis oblationem Deo, non pro solis
CHRIST DIED FOR ALL 79
dedit redemptionem semetipsum pro omnibus
[soil, hominibus] Who gave himself a redemption for all [i. e., for all men]/ The context
shows that St. Paul means to emphasize the
universality of God s will to save all men. Wemay also point in confirmation of our thesis to
such passages as 2 Cor. V, 14, in which the
Apostle numbers among the elect such as are still
in the state of original sin as well as those whoare justified. "Si units pro omnibus 13 mortuus
est, ergo omnes 14 mortui sunt If one died for
all, then all are dead."15
b) The Jansenists did not deny that the
Fathers who wrote before Pelagius clearly taughtthe vicarious atonement to be as universal as
God s will to save mankind, i. e. } that it embraces
all human beings without exception. But theyclaimed that a change came with St. Augustine,who succumbed to the evil influence of Predesti-
narianism. It is to be noted that the famous
African Doctor was warmly defended againstthis calumnious charge by one of his contemporaneous disciples, St. Prosper of Aquitaine.
16
13inrep iravTdov- holt, Lehre von der Genugtuung
I* ot iron/res. Christi, Paderborn 1896, pp. 31715 For an explanation of this text sqq., by Tricassin, De Praedestina-
see Al. Schafer, Erkldrung der bei- tione, p. I, sect. 7, punct. 4 sqq.,den Briefe an die Korinther, pp. and by Franzelin, De Deo Uno,439 sqq., Munster 1903. thes. 32, Rome 1883. The fate of
16 We cannot enter into the con- unbaptized infants will be discussed
troversy here. The student will in Vol. VII of this series.
find it exhaustively treated by Dor-
8o THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
Thesis III: The atonement did not benefit the
fallen angels.
This proposition is de fide.
Proof. Origen taught that Christ also died
for the demons, who were destined at some fu
ture time to be released from hell. This error
(dTroKarao-raais Travrwv) was closely related tO
another, harbored by the same learned but
erratic divine, vis.;that the Logos assumed the
form of an angel to redeem the lost angels, just
as He became man to redeem sinful humanity.
These vagaries were condemned as heretical by
a council held at Constantinople in 543, and
again by the Fifth Ecumenical Council, A. D.
553-17
The dogma embodied in our present thesis is
intimately bound up with that concerning the
fall of the angels and their eternal banishment
from Paradise.18
Being condemned to everlast
ing hell-fire, the evil spirits can have no share in
the merits of the Redeemer. "For although there
is assigned to angels also perdition in the fire pre
pared for the Devil and his angels," says Ter-
tullian, "yet a restoration was never promised
17 Cfr. Denzinger, Enchiridion, General Council in 553, though the
ed. 9, n. 193 and 198. Fr. Diekamp acta of the latter do not mention
(Die origenistischen Streitigkeiten the fact. Cfr. Chr. Pesch, S. J.,
im 6. Jahrhundert und das V. allge- Theologische Zeitfragen, Vol. II,
meine Konzil, Munster 1899) has put Freiburg 1901.
a quietus on an ancient controversy is Cfr. Pohle-Preuss, God the Au-
by showing that Origenism was con- thor of Nature and the Supernat-
demned both by the Council of Con- ural, pp. 34O sqq.
stantinople in 543 and by the Fifth
WHY SOME ARE LOST 81
them. No charge about the salvation of angels
did Christ ever receive from the Father; and
that which the Father neither promised nor com
manded, Christ could not have undertaken."
Thesis IV : The doctrine of the universality of the
atonement is not disproved by the fact that manyhuman beings are eternally lost.
This proposition may be qualified as theolog
ically certain.
Proof. The Council of Trent teaches : "But,
though He died for all, yet not all receive the
benefit of His death, but those only unto whomthe merit of His Passion is communicated."
According to Holy Scripture, the universality
of Christ s vicarious atonement is not absolute
but conditional. Those only are saved who com
ply with the conditions necessary for participat
ing in the fruits of the Redemption, viz.: bap
tism, faith, contrition, cooperation with grace,
perseverance. Cfr. Mark XVI, 16: "Quicredi-
derit et baptizatus fuerit, salvus erit; qui vero
non crediderit, condemnabitur He that be-
lieveth and is baptized, shall be saved; but he
that believeth not shall be condemned."
19 De Came Christi, c. 14. Cfr. [20 "Verum etsi ille pro omnibus
Dorholt, Lehre von der Genugtuung mortuus est, non omnes tamen eius
Christi, pp. 353 sqq. On the partici- beneficium recipiunt, sed ii dum-pation of the good angels in the taxat, quibus meritum passionis corn-
merits of the Redeemer see Pohle- municatur." Sess. VI, cap. 3.
Preuss, Christology, pp. 243 sqq. Denzinger-Bannwart, n. 795.
82 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
"The blood of thy Lord," observes St. Augus
tine, "is given for thee, if thou wilt; if thou wilt
not, it is not given for thee."
Theologians distinguish between God s antecedent and
His consequent will to save men. Antecedently He
willed to save all men without exception, even those who
are lost;voluntate consequent^ however, the damned are
in fact, though not in principle, excluded from the fruits
of the Redemption. It is correct to say, however, in
spite of this limitation, that Christ also died for the
damned, both past and future, because they are lost
through their own fault.
The atonement may be regarded as universal from
still another point of view. Satisfaction is either merely
sufficient or efficacious. It is sufficient if it provides
adequate means of salvation. It is efficacious if these
means are appropriated and utilized by those to whom
they are offered. Catholic divines unanimously teach
that Christ died for all men secundum sufficientiam,
non tamen secundum efficaciam. It is indeed quite ob
vious that if a man neglects to appropriate the fruits of
the Redemption, he derives no more benefit therefrom
than one who is dying of thirst receives from a spring
within his reach but from which he refuses to drink.
"
Although [Christ] by His death made sufficient satis
faction for the sins of the human race," says St. Thomas,
"yeteach individual man must seek for the remedies
whereby to work out his own salvation. The death of
Christ may in a manner be called the universal cause of
salvation, like as the sin of the first man was, after a
fashion, the universal cause of damnation. But it is nec
essary that the universal cause be applied to each one
21 Serm., 344, n. 4.
WHY SOME ARE LOST 83
in particular, that each may participate in its effect.
The effect of the sin of our first parents descends to
each one of us by the propagation of the flesh, while
the effect of our Saviour s death comes to each by spir
itual regeneration . . . and therefore it is necessary that
each individual human being should seek to be regenerated
through Christ and to employ all other means whereby the
death of Christ becomes efficacious."22 In other words,
the atonement is universal only with regard to its objec
tive value or sufficiency, not in respect of its subjective
application or efficaciousness. 23
22 "
Quamvis autem sufKcienter igitur peccati primi parentis pervenit
pro peccatis humani generis sua ad unumquemque per carnis ori-
morte satisfecerit, sunt tamen uni- ginem, effectus autem mortis Christi
cuique remedia propriae salutis pertingit ad unumquemque per spi-
quaerenda. Mors enim Christi est ritualem regcnerationem . . . et ideo
quasi quaedam universalis causa oportet quod unusquisque quaerat
salutis, sicut peccatum primi ho- regenerari per Christum et alia sus-
minis fuit quasi universalis causa cipere, in quibus virtus mortis
damnationis. Oportet autem uni- Christi operatur." Contra Cent.,
versalem causam applicari ad unum- IV, 55, sub. fin.
quodque specialiter, ut effectum uni- 23 Cfr. Dorholt, op. cit., pp. 307
versalis causae participet. Effectus sqq., 330 sqq.
SECTION 3
THE CONCRETE REALIZATION OF CHRIST S VICA
RIOUS ATONEMENT
In the two preceding Sections we have shown that
the atonement was real and intrinsically as well as ex-
trinsically perfect. The question now arises: What
were the specific actions by which the Godman made satis
faction for our sins ? Or, to express it in simpler terms,
How did Christ redeem us? We pray:"
By Thy holy
Cross Thou hast redeemed the world." This does not
imply that our Divine Saviour s previous actions had
no reference to the purpose of the Redemption. His
whole life, from His conception to His death on the
Cross, was a chain of expiatory actions, each in itself
sufficient to redeem the world jj^g^tu^rimo. But it
was an essential feature of the scheme of salvation that
jnjictu secundo, I. e., actually, no satisfaction was accept
able but that which had its consummation in the trag
edy on Golgotha.
In the present Section, therefore, we shall first treat
of Christ s Death on the Cross (Article i) and then of
two subsequent events of peculiar soteriological import,
viz.: His Descent into Hell (Article 2) and His Glori
ous Resurrection (Article 3).
CHRIST S DEATH 85
ARTICLE i
CHRIST S DEATH ON THE CROSS
We are here considering the death of our Di
vine Redeemer not as a sacrifice, but merely as the
means of our salvation. It was by His passion
and death that Jesus actually redeemed mankirid.
The circumstance that His death was a bloody
sacrifice constitutes Him a priest; this aspect of
the matter will receive due attention in Part II,
Chapter i, infra.
i. CHRIST S DEATH THE EFFICIENT CAUSE OF
OUR REDEMPTION. In view of the central posi
tion which the Cross of Christ occupies in the
history of the Redemption, the Tridentine Coun
cil asserted a truth self-evident to every Christian
when it defined : "Of this justification the causes
are these: the final cause indeed is the glory of
God and of Jesus Christ, . . . while the efficient
cause is a merciful God;
. . . but the meritorious
cause is His most beloved only-begotten Son, our
Lord Jesus Christ, who . . . merited justification
for us by His most holy Passion on the wood of
the Cross and made satisfaction for us to God the
Father."1
l "Huius iustificationis causae lesus Christus, qui . . . sua sanctis-
sunt finalis quidem gloria Dei et sima passion? in ligno crucis nobis
Christi, . . . efficiens vero miseri- iustificationem meruit et pro nobis
cars Deus, . . . meritoria autem di- Deo Patri [scil. per appropria-
lectissimus Unigenitus suus D. N. tionem] satisfecit." Cone. Trid.,
86 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
So important a dogma must loom large in the
New Testament and be at least foreshadowed in
the Old.
a) Apart from certain Old Testament types
(such as the sacrifice of Isaac, the scapegoat, the
brazen serpent, etc.),2 the Messianic prophecies
afford numerous intimations of the bloody pas
sion and death of the future Messias. Most of
these occur in the prophecies of Isaias and the
Book of Psalms. Isaias, in speaking of the satis
faction rendered by the "servant of the Lord,"
invariably describes it as a dolorous passion fol
lowed by death.4 The 2ist Psalm characterizes
salvation as the outcome of intense tribulation and
suffering. "But I am a worm, and no man; the
reproach of men, and the outcast of the people.
All they that saw me have laughed me to scorn :
they have spoken with the lips, and wagged the
head. . . . My strength is dried up like a pot
sherd, and my tongue hath cleaved to my jaws:
and thou hast brought me down into the dust of
death. . . . They have dug my hands and feet.
They have numbered all my bones. And they
have looked and stared upon me. They parted
my garments amongst them; and upon my ves
ture they cast lots/5
Sess VI cap. 7 (Denzinger-Bann- sis. XLII, 1-9; XLIX, i sqq.; L,
wart, n. 799). 4 sqq., LIII. 4 sqq. Cfr. Maas.
2 On these and other types of the op. cit., Vol. II, pp. 231 sqq.
suffering Messias see A. J. Maas, S. 4 See supra, pp. 46 sq.
J., Christ in Type and Prophecy, 5 Ps. XXI, 7 sqq. Cfr. Maas, op.
Vol. II, pp. 322-343. cit->
Vol< H> ppl 264-28 7-
CHRIST S DEATH 87
b) The New Testament fairly swarms with
passages in support of the dogma. Christ Himself says : "Filius hominis non venit ministrari,
sed ministrare, et dare animani suam redenip-
tionem6
pro multis - - The Son of man is not
come to be ministered unto, but to minister, and
to give his life a redemption for many."And
again: "Sic enim Deus dilexit munduni, ut
Filium suum unigenitum daret* ut omnis qui
credit in eum, non pereat, sed hobeat vitam aeter-
nam God so loved the world, as to give his
only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in
him, may not perish, but may have life everlast
ing."
9St. Paul attests the same truth in some
what different terms."Qui
etiam proprio Filio
suo non pepercit," he says, "sed pro nobis omni
bus tradiditw
ilium He spared not even his
own Son, but delivered him up for us all."
The notion that Christ died for us on the Cross
assumes concrete form in the shedding of His
blood "unto the remission of sins."12 Hence
the well-known Pauline axiom, "Sine sanguinis
effusione non fit remissio 13 Without sheddingof blood there is no remission."
14Therefore,
too, subjective salvation, i. e., the application of
6 \vrpov = ransom. 11 Rom. VIII, 32.
7 Matth. XX, 28. 12 Cfr. Matth. XXVI, 28.
8 eSw/cev. is Kal xwP*s ai/J.aTKxv(rla* ov9 John III, 16. 7iWrcu a0e<rtj.
10-rraptduKev,
1* Heb. IX, 22.
8$ THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
the fruits of the Redemption to the individual
soul, is described as "the sprinkling of the blood
of Jesus Christ,"15 and the Redemption was not
"consummated" until Christ gave up the ghost.16
2. THE CONGRUITY OF CHRIST S DEATH ON
THE CROSS. It was fitting that Christ should die
for us on the Cross. The reasons are admirably
developed by St. Thomas.17 We must confine
ourselves to a summary of the most important of
them.
a) It would have been unbecoming for the Redeemer to
die of old age or disease,18 or to fall beneath the blows
of an assassin. His high office as Saviour of the human
race demanded that He should die a public death. In no
other way could He have so effectively sealed the truth of
His teaching. Nothing could have been more conducive
to the spread of His Gospel than His bloody martyrdom,which contained within itself the proof of His teaching
and power. The fact that He met death unflinchingly
gained for Him a greater number of enthusiastic ad
herents than many years of teaching could have done.
What is the poison cup that Socrates put to his lips in
comparison with the agony suffered by Jesus Christ?
His reward was proportionate to the magnitude of His
suffering. This consideration (namely, that He merited
His glorification by intense suffering) implies a profound
teleology, which may be truly termed divine.
15 i Pet. I, 2:"
aspersionem san- is developed by Tepe, Inst. Theol.,
guinis lesu Christi." Cfr. Heb. Vol. Ill, pp. 651 sqq.
IX, 13 sq. 17 S. Theol., 33, qu. 46, art. 1-4,
16 "Consummatum est." John n; qu. 47, art. 4; qu. 50, art. i.
XIX, 30. The Patristic argument 18 Cfr. Pohle-Preuss, Christology,
pp. 8 1 sqq.
CHRIST S DEATH 89
b) In regard to those for whom He gave up His life,
Christ could not have selected a more congruous mannerof dying than that which He actually chose. The path of
Christian perfection runs between two poles hatred
of sin and the practice of virtue. From both points of
view the cruel drama enacted on Golgotha was eminentlyeffective. The power of sin could not be broken except
by a strong opposing force. This may be regarded either
objectively or subjectively.
a) The sin of our first parents had doomed the humanrace to spiritual death, a terrible penalty which entailed
the death of the body.19 Hence it was eminently proper
that our Divine Redeemer should by His bodily death de
stroy the spell of spiritual death and thereby restore manto that corporeal immortality which had been one of the
prerogatives of the human race in Paradise, but was for
feited by sin. There is a striking parallel also between
the first sinner s desire to be like unto God and the self-
humiliation of the Godman, between the"
tree of knowl
edge"
and the" wood of the Cross." The antithesis be
tween Christ s passion and death on the one hand, and sin
on the other, may be traced in detail. Thus the unholy
trinity of vices which we have inherited from our first
parents concupiscence of the eyes, concupiscence of the
flesh, and pride of life received a tremendous blow bythe bitter passion and death of our Saviour, concupis
cence of the eyes in the distribution of his garments,
concupiscence of the flesh in His disrobing and scourg
ing, and pride of life in the imposition of the thornycrown and the crucifixion.
(3) Nothing could produce a more impressive idea of
the hideousness of sin than the contemplation of the
19 Cfr. Rom. V, 7 sqq.
9o THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
mangled and blood-stained body of our crucified Re
deemer.20 It is apt to soften the hardest of hearts.
He who dares to offend God in plain view of the Cross
is an atrocious villain, because, in the words of St. Paul,
he does not shrink from"
crucifying again . . . the Son
of God and making him a mockery."21 The height of
contemplation and the heroic practice of virtue to which
the medieval mystics attained by meditating on the cruel
sufferings of our Divine Redeemer, have been and still
are within the reach of all men. Like St. John many
have found by experience that love kindles love."
In
this is charity : not as though we had loved God, but be
cause he hath first loved us, and sent his Son to be a pro
pitiation for our sins."
Our crucified Redeemer is, moreover, a living and at
tractive model of all virtue. How would it be possible
for us poor weak mortals to be virtuous had we not His
glorious example to encourage us? Is there anything
a selfish, effeminate man dreads more than pain and
death ? Yet the Passion of Christ has deprived both of
their sting. St. Teresa had no other desire than either
to die or to suffer (ant mori ant pati). Death, too, so
terrible to human nature, has lost its horrors. With the
crucifix clasped in his hands and the name of the Re
deemer on his lips, the pious Christian calmly commends
his soul to the Heavenly Father. In the Cross there is
salvation, the Cross is a haven of refuge.23
20 On the extensive and intensive 22 i John IV, 10.
magnitude of our Lord s suffering 23 Cfr. the Roman Catechism,
see Cfr. Pesch, Prael. Dogmat., Vol. Part I, ch. 5, qu. 4, 145 Billuart,
IV, pp. 267 sqq.; A. Kluge, Das De Myst. Christi, diss. 9, art. i, and
Seelenleiden des Welterlosers, Mainz Oswald, Die Erlosung in Christo
J90S . Jew, Vol. II, 5, Paderborn 1887.
aiHeb. VI, 6.
CHRIST S DESCENT INTO HELL 91
ARTICLE 2
CHRIST S DESCENT INTO HELL
The Oriental and the ancient Roman versions
of the so-called Apostles Creed do not mentionChrist s Descent into hell. But the doctrine is
contained in the Spanish, Gallic, and Aquilean re
censions and in the symbol "Quicunque/ wronglyattributed to St. Athanasius. Hence the descen-
sits ad inferos is commonly regarded as an article
of faith. The Fourth Lateran Council (A. D.
1215) teaches somewhat more explicitly: "He
descended into hell, ... but He descended in
soul and arose in flesh, and ascended equallyin both/ 1
Durandus contended that the soul of Christ descended into hell dynamically but not substan
tially. This opinion was censured as heretical bySuarez. 2 And justly so; for it can be effectivelyrefuted from Sacred Scripture. The same is trueof Calvin s absurd notion 3
that Christ before andafter His agonizing death suffered the torturesof the damned.
The nature of the place into which our Lorddescended has never been dogmatically denned,
.
"
Descendit ad infernos, . . . zinger-Bannwart, Enchiridion, n.sed descendit in anima et resurrexit 429.)in carne: ascenditque pariter in 2 De Myst. Vitae Christi, disp. 43,utroque." Caput "Firmiter." (Den- sect. 2, n. 7.
3 Inst., II, 16, 10.
92 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
but it is theologically certain that it was the so-
called limbus patrum (sinus Abrahae).
i. PROOF OF THE DOGMA FROM SACRED SCRIP
TURE AND TRADITION. The dogma of Christ s
Descent into hell is clearly contained both in
Sacred Scripture and Tradition.
a) Ps. XV, 10: "Non derelinques animam
meam in inferno* nee dabis Sanctum tuum videre
corruptionem Thou wilt not leave my soul in
hell, nor wilt thou give thy holy one to see cor
ruption/ This text contains a convincing argu
ment for our dogma, because St. Peter directly
applies it to Christ: "Providens [David] locutus
est de resurrectione Christi, quia neque derelictus
est in inferno neque caro eius vidit corruptionem
Foreseeing this, he [David] spoke of the resur
rection of Christ. For neither was he left in hell,
neither did his flesh see corruption."The
Greek term which the Vulgate renders by in-
fernum is &?s. It cannot mean grave, as Beza
contended, because the soul of Christ was not
buried; nor can it mean death (which is Calvin s
interpretation), because the soul of Christ did not
die. It must refer to a locality where the soul of
our Lord sojourned until it was reunited with His
"uncorrupted flesh" at the Resurrection.6
4 T*IV *vx*iv eis &8ov. 6-12; Maas, Christ in Type and
5 Acts II, 31. Cfr* Acts XIII, 35- Prophecy, Vol. I, pp. 140 sqq.; Vol.
6 Cfr. Bellarmine, De Christo, IV, II, pp. 35^ sqq., esp. p. 372.
CHRIST S DESCENT INTO HELL 93
This interpretation is confirmed by the teaching of
St. Paul in his Epistle to the Ephesians :
" Now that
he ascended, what is it, but because he also descended
first into the lower parts of the earth ?7 He that de
scended is the same also that ascended above all the
heavens, that he might fill allthings."
8 Christ s as
cension here can only mean His return to Heaven. Con
sequently, the word descend, in contradistinction to as
cend, must here be understood in a local sense. This is
rendered all the more probable by the fact that the phraseinferiores paries terrae cannot be applied to Christ s
burial, and still less metaphorically to the Incarnation.
For the rest, St. Peter, (in a somewhat obscure passage, it
is true),9
explicitly observes that the soul of Christ"
preached10
to those spirits that were in prison,"
hence it must have been substantially present in a particular place, i. e., the limbo.
b) The Tradition in support of our dogma is
as ancient as it is positive.
St. Irenaeus says :
"
For three days He dwelt in the
place where the dead were."1X Tertullian mentions
Christ s Descent into hell in several passages of his
works. We shall quote but one." Nor did He ascend
into the heights of heaven before descending into thelower parts of the earth, that He might there make the
patriarchs and prophets partakers of Himself."12
St.
Augustine speaks with the authority of both Scripture
7 eis TO. KCLTwrepa pepy TTJS 7775. Adv. Haereses, V, 31, i; cfr. also8 Eph. IV, 9 sq. Adv. Haereses, IV, 27, 2.
i^Pet.Ill, 18 sqq. 12 " Nee ante ascendit in sublimi-
10<?Ki7pue,
praedicavit. ora coelorum, quam descendit in in-11 "Nunc outem tribus diebus feriora terrarum, ut illic patriarchal
conversatus est, ubi erant mortui." et prophetas compotes sui faceret."
De Anima, c. 55; cfr. also c. 4, 7.
94 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
and Tradition when he says:" Who but an unbeliever
would deny that Christ was in the nether world?" 13
2. MEANING OF THE TERM "HELL." Infer-
num (ffys, KaroWrct^ Hebrew, "*? ) may designate
either (a) hell in the strict sense of the term,
i. e., the abode of the reprobates (gehenna) ;or
(b) a place of purification after death, commonlycalled purgatory (purgatorium) ;
or (c) the
biding place of children who have died unbaptized
(limbus infantium); or (d) the abode of the
just men who lived before the coming of Christ
(limbus patnnn). To which of these four places
did Christ descend?
a) The soul of our Lord did not descend to the
abode of the damned.
Calvin s blasphemous assertion that the soul of Christ,
from the beginning of His sacred Passion in the Garden
of Gethsemane to the Resurrection, dwelled in the abode
of the damned, and there suffered the poena damni, is
based on an untenable exaggeration of the notion of
vicarious atonement.14It is not true, as Calvin held,
that Christ s Descent into hell constituted the climax.
of the atonement. The atonement culminated on the
Cross.("
Consummatum est")Nor can we conceive
of any reasonable motive why our Lord should have
descended into the gehenna of the damned. The hu
man beings confined in that awful dungeon were abso-
13 "Quis ergo nisi infidelis nega- P. L., XXXIII, 710).
verit fuisse apud inferos Christum?" i* Cfr. Bellarmine, De Christ o,
Ep. 104 ad Evodium, c. 2, 3 (Migne, V, 8.
CHRIST S DESCENT INTO HELL 95
lutely irredeemable, even as the demons themselves.16
Moreover, a personal sojourn in hell would have been re
pugnant to the dignity of the Godman. St. Augustinedoes not hesitate to stigmatize as heretical the proposition that
" When Christ descended into hell, the unbe
lieving believed and all were set free."16 The "
triumphover hell
"
which the Church celebrates in her Easter
hymns did not require the substantial presence there of
our Lord s soul; it was accomplished by His virtual or
dynamic presence, i. e., the exercise of His divine power.Certain ancient ecclesiastical writers 17 held that on the
occasion of His Descent Christ rescued from eternal tor
ture the souls of certain pious heathens, e. g., Socrates
and Plato. This theory does not contradict the dogmathat the pains of hell are eternal, as Suarez contends
;but
it must nevertheless be rejected as unfounded; first, be
cause without positive proof to the contrary we are not
permitted to assume an exception, and secondly, because
there is no ground whatever for the assumption that these
pious heathens were condemned to hell rather than rele
gated to the limbus pairurn.
b) There is another opinion, held by several
reputable theologians, viz., that the soul of Christ
appeared personally in purgatory to console the
poor souls and to admit them to the beatific vision.
We may let this pass as a"
pious opinion," provided its
defenders refrain from denying that Christ also descended
into the limbus patrum. But even with this limitation wecan hardly admit that the theory is based on sufficient
is V. supra, Sect. 2, Art. 2, The- feros credidisse incredulos et omnessis 4. e.vinde liberates." De Haer., 79.
16 "Descendente Christo ad in- 17 E. g., Clement of Alexandriaand Origen.
96 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
evidence. Two weighty arguments speak against it. It
is a fundamental law of divine justice that whoever neglects to render satisfaction in this life must inevitably suf
fer in the next (satispassio) ,and Sacred Scripture affords
no warrant for assuming that an exception was madein this instance, say after the manner of a plenary indul
gence in commemoration of the Redemption. On the
other hand it is highly improbable that all the inmates
of purgatory should have finished the process of purifi
cation at exactly the same moment. In view of these
considerations St. Thomas holds that the (merely vir
tual) presence of our Lord in purgatory resulted in noth
ing more than giving to the poor souls temporarily im
prisoned there"
the hope of an early beatitude."18 The
only exception the Angelic Doctor is disposed to make is
in favor of those" who were already sufficiently purged,
or who during their lifetime had by faith and devotion to
the death of Christ merited the favor of being released
from the temporal sufferings of purgatory on the occasion
of His descent."19
c) Was it perhaps the limbus pueromm, i. e.,
the abode of children who die in the state of orig
inal sin, into which our Saviour descended? It
is difficult to see for what reason He should have
gone there.
He could not benefit the souls of these children, be
cause they have once for all arrived at their destination.
185". TheoL, 33, qu 51, art. 3: viverent, meruerunt per fidem et
"Illis vero, qui detinebantur in pur- devotionem ad mortem Christi, ut
gatorio, spem gloriae consequendae eo dcscendente liberarentur a tern-
dedit." porali purgatorii poena." (Ibid.)
19 ". . . qui iam sufficient er pur- Cfr. Billuart, De Myst. Christi, diss.
gati erant, vel etiam qui, dum adhuc n, art. 3.
CHRIST S DESCENT INTO HELL 97
Nor can He have desired to triumph over them, be
cause the fact that they are deprived of the beatific
vision is not due to any malice on their part, but simply
and solely to original sin contracted by their descent
from Adam. As these infants are absolutely irredeem
able in virtue of Christ s voluntas salmfica consequens,
we cannot even assume the existence of a special priv
ilege in their favor. That which is impossible cannot
be made the subject-matter of a privilege, not even at so
solemn a juncture as the death of our Saviour.21 Their
fate does not involve cruelty nor injustice on the part
of God, because, though deprived of the beatific vision,
they enjoy a certain measure of natural happiness.22
d) Consequently, the only place to which the
soul of Christ can have descended during the
triduum intervening between His death and the
Resurrection, is the limbus patrum, sometimes
also called "bosom of Abraham/
The limbus patrum was the place in which the patriarchs and just men of the Old Testament, together
with those heathens who had died in the state of grace,
after having been cleansed from all stain of sin in purga
tory, dwelled in the expectation of the beatific vision.
That such a place existed we conclude from Heb. IX, 8 :
" The way into1 the holies [i. e., Heaven]23 was not yet
20 V. supra, Sect. 2, Art. 2, The- neque per fidem parentum out persis 4. aliquod fidei sacramentum [soil, bap-
21 Cfr. St. Thomas, S. TheoL, 3a, tismum] fuerant a peccato originali
qu. 52, art. 7: "Pueri autem, qui mundati. Et idea descensus Christi
cum originali peccato decesserant, ad inferos huiusmodi pueros non li-
ttullo modo fuerant coniuncti pas- beravit ab inferno."
sioni Christi per fidem et dilec- 22 Cfr. Pohle-Preuss, God the
tionem. Neque enim fidem pro- Author of Nature and the Super-
priam habere potuerant, quia non natural, pp. 300 sqq.
habuerunt usum liberi arbitrii, 23 Cfr. Heb. X, 19.
98 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
made manifest, whilst the former tabernacle [i. e., the
Old Testament] was yet standing," We may also infer
the (former) existence of such a place from the fact that
Holy Scripture adverts to a state of imprisonment as an
intermediary stage on the way to Heaven.
3. SPECULATIONS REGARDING THE LOCATION
OF THE LIMBO. The word limbo, which is de
rived from limbus, properly signifies edge or bor
der. It owes its use as a technical term in theol
ogy to the ancient belief that the abode of the
patriarchs was situated on the confines of hell,
somewhere near the surface of the earth. Dante
and Milton place the limbo at the outermost circle
of hell.24 Since the geocentric has been sup
planted by the Copernican world-view, we knowthat the ancient notions of "above" and "below"
are purely relative. Hence the traditional view
with regard to the site of hell and the limbo does
not appertain to the substance of dogma. The
meagre data furnished by Revelation do not
enable us to draw up a topographical map of
the nether world. We know no more about the
whereabouts of hell than we know about the
location of what was once the limbo of the
Fathers. The theological arguments of certain
Scholastic writers, based on the geocentric con
ception of the universe, can claim no probability,
much less certitude.25
24 Milton, Paradise Lost, III, 440 25 On the limbo see P. J. Toner
gqq. in the Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol.
CHRIST S DESCENT INTO HELL 99
4. THE SOTERIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF
CHRIST S DESCENT INTO HELL. Christologicallyour Lord s Descent into hell must be conceived
as an intermediary stage between glorification
and abasement. It partook of abasement in
|respect of the external circumstance of place, but
it did not entail upon His human nature anysubstantial or intrinsic alteration.
26 From the
soteriological point of view the question as to
the meaning of Christ s Descent into hell re
solves itself into another, namely, What was its
object or purpose?What can have been our Saviour s purpose in
visiting the patriarchs ? We may safely assumethat His descent stood in some sort of relation to
the redemption of the human race which He had
just accomplished. It must have aimed at their
beatification, for the limbo contained no reprobates. St. Paul applies the text Ps. LXVII, 19:"Ascendens in altum captivam duxit captivita-tem "
to the inmates of the limbo, as if hewished to say: Ascending into Heaven Christ
leads away with Him those who had been imprisoned in the limbo.
27
We are informed of the object of our Lord s Descent into the limbo by St. Peter, who says in his
IX, pp. 256 sqq.; Mamachi, De 26 Cfr. H. Simar, Dogmatik, Vol.Animabus lustorum in Sinn Abrahae I, 3rd eel., p. 538, Freiburg 1899.ante Christi Mortem, Rome 1706. 27 Cfr. Eph. IV, 8.
ioo THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
first Epistle:28
"[Christ was] put to death indeed in
the flesh, but enlivened in the spirit, in which also cominghe preached to those spirits that were in prison :
29 which
had been some time incredulous,30 when they waited for
the patience of God in the days of Noe, when the ark
was a-building." This text is admittedly difficult of in
terpretation ;
31 but despite a certain obscurity, its general drift is discernable. The Apostle evidently meansto say that Christ personally approached
32 the spirits or
souls of those who were imprisoned in the limbo and
preached33 to them. What and why did he preach to
them? To assume that He tried to convert the damnedwould contradict the revealed truth that there is no
salvation for those condemned to hell. Can it have
been His purpose to assure them of their damnation?
This hypothesis is equally untenable, because a little fur
ther down in his text St. Peter expressly describes
Christ s preaching (/ofcvy/xa) as a"gospel,"
which meansa message of joy.
"
Ne/cpois ew/yyeAt o-tf??,"these are his
words "
the gospel was preached to the dead."34 The
"
gospel"
which our Lord preached to the inmates of
limbo must have been the glad tidings that their im
prisonment was at an end. But whom does St. Peter
mean when he speaks of"
those spirits . . . which had
been some time incredulous, when they waited for the
patience of God in the days of Noe"? This is a diffi
cult question to answer. But no matter how we maychoose to interpret the subsidiary clause, the main sen
tence is plain enough. Among the just imprisoned in the
limbo there were also (/cat) some who had abused God s
28 i Pet. Ill, 18 sqq. 31 Cfr. St. Augustine, Ep. ad29 ev & /cat rots ev
<^uXa/c^fEvod., 164.
irvevfjiCKriv iropevOels eicf]pvev.32
iropevtieis.30
diretOriaacriv irore- 33eKripv&v, praedicavit,
34 i Pet. IV, 6.
THE RESURRECTION 101
patience before the Deluge by remaining incredulous till
the flood overtook them.35 The "
gospel"
or joyful mes
sage which Christ brought to the inmates of limbo cannot
have consisted in anything more than the preliminary
announcement that they were soon to be freed;for their
formal admission into the heavenly abode of the Blessed
did not take place till the day of His Ascension.36 Never
theless, in view of our Lord s remark to the penitent
thief: "This day thou shalt be with me in paradise,"
we must hold that the patriarchs were forthwith ad
mitted to the beatific vision of God.37
ARTICLE 3
THE RESURRECTION
i. THE RELATION OF CHRIST S RESURRECTION
TO His DEATH. Christ s glorious Resurrection
may be considered from three distinct points of
view.
Apologetically, i. e., regarded as a historic fact
establishing His Divinity, it is the bulwark of our
faith1 and the pledge of our own future resurrec
tion.2
Christologically, the Resurrection signalizes
35 Cfr. Hundhausen, Das ersie l i Cor. XV, 14.
Pastoralschreiben des Apostelfiir- i2 i Cor. XV, 13. For an apol-
sten Petrus, pp. 343 sqq., Mainz ogetic treatment of the Resurrec-
1873. tion we refer the student to De-36 Cfr. Ps. LXVII, 19. vivier-Sasia, Christian Apologetics,37 Cfr. the Catechism of the Vol. I, pp. 197 sqq., San Jose, Cal.,
Council of Trent, Part I, Ch. 6, Qu. 1903; G. W. B. Marsh, The Resur-
6. The reasons why it was meet rcction of Christ, Is it a Fact?
that Christ should descend into hell London 1905; and other similar
are developed by St. Thomas, 5". treatises.
Theol., 3a, qu. 52, art. i.
102 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
Christ s entrance into the state of glory which
He had earned for Himself by His passion and
death.3
Considered from the distinctive viewpoint of
Soteriology, the Resurrection of Christ was not,
strictly speaking, the chief, nor even a contrib
uting cause of our redemption ;
4 but it was an
essential complement thereof, and constituted its
triumphant consummation.
a) The Catholic Church regards the Resurrection as
an integral, though not an essential, element of the atone
ment. That is why she mourns on Good Friday and cele
brates Easter as the great feast of the Redemption."
Lastly," says the Roman Catechism,5
". . . the Resur
rection of our Lord was necessary, in order to completethe mystery of our salvation and redemption ;
for by his
death Christ liberated us from our sins, and by His
Resurrection he restored to us the principal blessings
which we had forfeited by sin. Hence it is said by the
Apostle : He was delivered up for our sins, and rose
again for our justification. That nothing, therefore,
might be wanting to the salvation of the human race, it
was meet that, as He should die, He should also rise
again." This teaching is in perfect accord with Sacred
Scripture, which links the crucifixion of our Lord with
His Resurrection and represents both events as one in
divisible whole. Cfr. Luke XXIV, 46 sq. :
"
Thus it is
written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise
3 Cfr. Luke XXIV, 26. V. su- the Cross. (Cfr. supra, pp. 85 sqq.)
pn, PP- 58 sq. r, Part I, Ch. 6, Qu. 12.
4 The sole cause of our redemp- 6 Rom. IV, 25.
tion was the Saviour s death on
THE RESURRECTION 103
again from the dead, the third day, that penance and
remission of sins should be preached in his name unto all
nations."7
b) St. Paul deepened this conception by pointing out
that the Crucifixion and the Resurrection contain the two
essential elements of justification remission of sin and
infusion of a new life. As Christ died and rose again from
the dead, so shall we die to sin and arise to spiritual life.
Cfr. Rom. VI, 6 sqq. :
"
Knowing this, that our old manis crucified with him, that the body of sin may be de
stroyed, to the end that we may serve sin no longer. For
he that is dead is justified from sin. Now if we be dead
with Christ, we believe that we shall live also together with
Christ: knowing that Christ rising again from the dead,
dieth now no more." The Apostle loved to apply this
sublime symbolism to the Sacrament of Baptism ,in
which the acts of immersion and emersion emblem both
the burial and Resurrection of Christ, and the liberation
from sin and sanctification of the sinner. Cfr. Rom. VI,
4 :
"
For we are buried together with him by baptisminto death
;that as Christ is risen from the dead by the
glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of
life."8
2. THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST AS A DOGMA.
The glorious Resurrection of our Lord is a
cardinal dogma, nay the very foundation and
keystone of Christian belief. For this reason the
7 Cfr. St. Bonaventure, Comment. 8 Cfr. 2 Cor. V, 15. On the sub-
in Quatuor Libras Sent., Ill, dist. ject-matter of this subdivision the
19, art. i, qu. i: "Ratio merendi student may profitably consult St.
iustificationem attribuitur soli pas- Thomas, vS". Theol., 33, qu. 56, art.
sioni, non resurrectioni; ratio vero 2 and H. Simar, Die Theologie des
terminandi et quietandi attribuitur hi. Paulus, 2nd ed., pp. 194 sqq.,
resurrectioni, ad quam ordinatur Freiburg 1883.
ittstificatio, non passioni."
104 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
phrase "on the third day He arose again" wasembodied in all the creeds and reiterated in nu
merous doctrinal definitions.
The Catholic Church has always emphasizedtwo distinct points in regard to the Resurrection,
vis.: (i) Its reality or truth, and (2) the
transfigured and glorified state of the risen Redeemer. To safeguard these two aspects of the
dogma she strenuously insisted on the real re
union of Christ s soul with His body,9 and form
ally rejected the Origenist teaching of the ethereal
nature and sphericity of the risen body as well
as the heresy of its alleged corruptibility. Thusthe Council of Constantinople (A. D. 543) says:
"If any one assert that the body of our Lord
after the Resurrection was ethereal and spherical
in shape, ... let him be anathema." Andthe symbol of Pope Leo IX declares that Christ
arose from the dead on the third day "bya true
resurrection of the flesh, to confirm which Heate with His disciples not because He stood in
need of food, but solely by His will and power."n
All these statements can be convincingly demonstrated from Divine Revelation.
a) Christ had positively predicted that Hewould arise on the third day (cfr. Matth. XII, 40;
9 Cfr. Cone. Lateran. IV , Caput reum et figura sphaerica, anathema
"Firmiter" (supra, p. 91). sit." Denzinger s Enchiridion, gth10 "Si quis dixerit Domini corpus ed., n. 196.
post resurrectionem fuisse aethe- n Denzinger-Bannwart, n. 344.
THE RESURRECTION 105
XX, 19; XXVII, 63; Mark X, 34; Luke XVIII,
33; John II, 18 sqq.). He proved the reality
and the truth of His resurrection by repeatedly
appearing to His disciples, conversing with them,
allowing them to touch His sacred body, eating
and drinking with them, and so forth. (Matth.
XXVIII, 17 sq.; Luke XXIV, 41 sqq.; John
XX, 24 sqq.; i Cor. XV, 6). The Apostles
would not have so courageously and uncompro
misingly stood up for their faith in the Resur
rection had they not seen and conversed with
the risen Lord. Cfr. Acts IV, 33: "And with
great power12 did the Apostles give testimony
of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord."13
Though not an eye-witness, St. Paul was a bold
and enthusiastic herald of the Resurrection : "If
Christ be not risen again, then is our preaching
vain, and your faith is also vain/14
That Christ rose in a glorified body is evi
denced by the circumstances surrounding His
Resurrection,15 and by the fact that His risen
body was endowed with certain attributes which
man cannot enjoy except in a transfiguredstate.
16
12dvvd/jiei fjLeydXrj, virtute magnd. 15 Matth. XXVIII, i sqq.; Luke
13 Cfr. Acts II, 22 sqq.; Ill, 15; XXIV, 36 sqq.; John XX, 19 sqq.
X, 40 sqq.; XIII, 30 sqq. 16 This point will be developed in
14 i Cor. XV, 14; cfr. Rom. X, 9. Eschatology.
io6 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
He retained the marks of His five wounds 17 for reasons
of congruity, which St. Thomas explains as follows :
"
It
was becoming that the soul of Christ in the Resurrection
should reassume the body with its wounds. First, for the
glorification of Christ Himself; secondly, to confirm His
disciples in their faith in the Resurrection ; third, that in
supplicating the Father for us, He might always remind
Him of what He had suffered for men;fourth to recall
the divine mercy to those whom He had redeemed, by ex
hibiting to them the marks of His death; and, lastly, that
on Judgment day He might show forth the justice of the
judgment by which [the wicked] are damned."18
That Christ really and truly rose from the dead in a
glorified body, is so evident from Sacred Scripture that
we need not stop to prove it from Tradition. 19
b) In connection with the Resurrection of our
Lord the Catholic Church has always held two
other important truths, viz.: ( i ) That His Res
urrection is the prototype of a general "resurrec
tion of the flesh/ and (2) that Christ arose byHis own power.
Both these truths are clearly taught in the famous
Creed drawn up by the Eleventh Council of Toledo
(A. D. 675) :
" And on the third day, raised up by His
17 Cfr. John XX, 27; Apoc. V, 6. tulerit, semper ostendat; quarto ut
18 S. TheoL, 33, qu. 54, art. 4: sua morte redemptis, quam miseri-
"Conveniens fuit animam Christi in corditer sint adiuti, propositis eius-
resurrectione corpus cum cicatrici- dem mortis indiciis insinuet; po-
bus resumere : primo quidem propter stremo ut in iudicio [ultimo], quamgloriam ipsius Christi . . .; secundo iuste damnentur, ibidem denuntiet."
ad confirmandum corda discipulorum 19 On the whole subject cfr. Billu-
circa fidem suae resurrectionis; ter- art, De Myst. Christi, diss. 12, art.
tio ut Patri pro nobis supplicans, 4 and 6; G. B. Tepe, Inst. TheoL,
quale genus mortis pro homine per- Vol. I, pp. 97 sqq., Paris 1894-.
THE RESURRECTION 107
own power, He rose again from the grave ; by virtue ofthis example of our Head we profess that there will be aresurrection of the flesh for all the dead."
20 The phrase
"byHis own power" (mrtute proprid) points to an ac
tive rising (resurgere), which is more than a miraculous
awakening (resuscitari) .
The dogma is clearly contained in Sacred Scripture.Cfr. John II, 19: "Jesus answered and said to them:
Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it
up."
21John X, 17 sq.: "Therefore doth the Father
love me: because I lay down my life, that I may takeit again. No man taketh it away from me: but I layit down of myself, and I have power to lay it down:and I have power to take it up again."
22
Christ Himself ascribes this power to His consubstan-
tiality with the Father. John V, 21: "For as theFather raiseth up the dead, and giveth life : so the Sonalso giveth life to whom he will."
23Hence, if Holy
Scripture elsewhere speaks of our Lord s being raised upby the Father,
24this is obviously an appropriation, based
on the fact that the efficient cause of our Saviour s Resurrection was not His humanity, which had been resolvedinto its constituent elements by death, but His Divinity,which remained hypostatically united with His soul andbody. The Roman Catechism explains this as follows:
>l
There existed a divine energy as well in the body, bywhich it might be reunited to the soul, as in the soul, bywhich it might return again to the body, and by which He,
20 "Tertio quoque die virtute pro- 21e7e/?w, excitabo.
pria sua suscitatus a sepulcro resur- 22 $ Vfflco> ex iraXiv \aBeivrexit; hoc ergo exemplo capitis no- avTyv.stri confitemur veram fieri resurrec- 23 6 vlbs ovs 0e\ fwoTroiei.tionem carnis omnium mortuorum." 24 Acts II, 24 sqq.; Ill, 13 sqq.;Denzinger-Bannwart, n. 286. Rom. VIII, u; Gal. I, i.
8
io8 THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
by His own power, might return to life and rise again
from the dead."25
READINGS :*Billuart, De Incarnatione, diss. 19-20. IDEM, De
Mysterio Christi, diss. 9-12. St. Thomas, Summa Theologica, aa,
qu. 19-22; qu. 24, 26; qu. 46-56. Bellarmine, De Christo, 1. IV,
c. 6-16; 1. V, c. i-io. De Lugo, De Mysterio Incarnation**,
disp. 27 sqq..* Franzelin, De Verbo Incarnate, sect. 4, Rome
1881. Oswald, Soteriologie, 2nd ed., Paderborn 1887.* Stentrup,
S. J., Soteriologia, 2 vols., Innsbruck 1889. G. B. Tepe, Insti-
tutiones Theologicae, Vol. Ill, pp. 617 sqq., Paris 1896. Chr.
Pesch, S. J., Praelectiones Dogmaticae, Vol. IV, 3d ed., pp. 201 sqq.,
Freiburg 1909. Hunter, Outlines of Dogmatic Theology, Vol.
II, pp. 506 sqq., London s. a. Wilhelm-Scannell, A Manual of
Catholic Theology, Vol. II, pp. 181-195, 2nd ed., London 1901.
A. Ritter, Christus der Erloser, Linz 1903.* B. Dorholt, Lehre
von der Genugtuung Christi, Paderborn 1896. Muth, Heilstat
Christi als stellvertretende Genugtuung, Ratisbon 1904 . K. Staab,
Die Lehre von der stellvertretenden Genugtuung, Paderborn 1908.
Pell, Lehre des hi. Athanasius von der Sunde und Erldsung,
Passau 1888 Strater, Erldsungslehre des hi Athanasius, Frei
burg 1894. Weigl, Heilslehre des hi Cyrill von Alexandrien,
Mainz 1905.*!. Riviere, Le Dogme de la Redemption, Paris
1905 (English translation, The Doctrine of the Atonement, 2
vols., London 1909). E. Hugon, O. P., Le Mystcre de la Re
demption (a speculative pendant to Riviere s Le Dogme de la
Redemption, which is mainly historical), Paris 1911. H. N.
Oxenham, The Catholic Doctrine of the Atonement: An His
torical Inquiry into its Development in the Church, London 1865.
(This work, which has been lately translated into French, must
be read with caution. Cfr. La Civilta Cattolica, Quad. 1431, Feb.
5, 1910). J. Kleutgen, S. J., Theologie der Vorzeit, Vol. I, 2nd
ed., pp. 336 sqq., Miinster 1870 (against Gunther). Friedlieb,
Leben Jesu Christi des Erlosers mit neuen historischen und
chronologischen Untersuchungen, Paderborn 1887. Grimm, Le
ben Jesu nach den vier Evangelien, 7 vols., 2nd ed., Ratisbon
25 Cat. Rom., P. I, c. 6, qu. 8: set, qua et licuit sua virtute revivis-
"Divina vis turn in corpore inerat, cere atque a mortuis resurgerc."
qua animae iterum coniungit, turn Cfr. Chr. Pesch, Praelect. Dogmat,,
in anima, qua ad corpus reverti pos- Vol. IV, pp. 280 sqq.
THE RESURRECTION 109
1890 sqq. Didon, O. P., Jesus Christ, English edition, London1895. J. E. Belser, Geschichte des Leidens und Sterbens, der
Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt des Herrn, Freiburg 1903. W.Humphrey, S. J., The One Mediator, London s. a. A. J. Maas,S. J., Christ in Type and Prophecy, Vol. II, pp. 13 sqq., NewYork 1895. G. W. B. Marsh, Messianic Philosophy, pp. 24sqq., London 1908. Freddi- Sullivan, S. J., Jesus Christ theWord Incarnate, pp. 191 sqq., St. Louis 1904. J. Tixeront, His-tolre des Dogmes, Vol. II, 3rd ed., pp. 148 sqq., 285 sqq., 376 sqq.,Paris 1909.
See also the references in Pohle-Preuss, Christology, pp. 7 sq.,St. Louis 1913.
* The asterisk before an author s name indicates that his treatmentof the question is especially clear and thorough. As St. Thomas is in
variably the best guide, the omission of the asterisk before his name nevermeans that we consider his work in any, way inferior to that of otherwriters. There are vast stretches of theology which he scarcely touched.
PART II
THE THREE OFFICES OF THEREDEEMER
The Redemption, considered as an objective
fact, must be subjectively appropriated by each
individual human being. Hence three functions
or offices on the part of our Divine Redeemer, ( I )
that of High Priest, (2) that of Prophet or
Teacher, and (3) that of King.
no
CHAPTER I
CHRIST S PRIESTHOOD
SECTION i
CHRIST S DEATH A TRUE SACRIFICE
The present Chapter is chiefly concerned with
demonstrating, ( i ) that the death of Christ wasa true sacrifice, and (2) that He Himself was a
true priest. It is these facts which give to the
Redemption its sacerdotal and hieratic stamp andfurnish us with the key to the philosophy of the
atonement.
i. DEFINITION OF THE TERM "BLOODY SACRIFICE/ A sacrifice is "the external offering upof a visible gift, which is destroyed, or at least
submitted to an appropriate transformation, by a
lawful minister in recognition of the sovereigntyof God and in order to appease His anger."
a) This definition, which will be more fully explainedin the dogmatic treatise on the Holy Eucharist, embraces
four essential elements :
(a) A visible gift and its physical or moral destruc
tion or transformation, such as the slaughtering of an
in
ii2 OFFICES OF THE REDEEMER
animal, the burning of cereals, the pouring out of a
fluid, etc.
(/?) A lawful minister or priest who offers the gift to
God.
(y) An exterior act of worship, consisting in the phys
ical presentation of the gift.
(8) A final end or object, which is the acknowledgmentof God s supreme dominion and the appeasement of His
anger.
Applying the Scholastic distinction between materia
and forma, we find that the materia remota of a sacrifice
is the visible gift itself, its materia proximo,, the act of de
struction or transformation, and its forma, the sacrificial
act (actio sacrifica), which combines and unifies both
the external offering of the visible gift and the intrinsic
purpose for which it is offered. This intrinsic purpose
or object is the main factor, because it informs and de
termines the external act, just as the human soul informs
and determines the body. Without a genuine intention
on the part of the sacrificing priest there is no sacrifice.1
b) The twofold purpose of every sacrifice is the ac
knowledgment of God s supreme dominion and the ap
peasement of His anger.
The first of these objects is attained by adoration, the
second by expiation.
Adoration is the formal element of every sacrifice, i. e.,
that which essentially constitutes it a sacrifice in the
strict sense of the term. Expiation does not enter into
the essence of sacrifice, but is a merely secondary
factor, because conditioned by the accidental fact of sin.
Since both thanksgiving and supplication, when addressed
to the Almighty, invariably and necessarily partake of the
l Cfr. St. Thomas, S. Theol., za aae, qu. 85, art 2.
SACRIFICE 113
nature of absolute worship, sacrifices offered up for these
two purposes have no relation to sin. The case is differ
ent with expiatory sacrifices. While sin has neither abol
ished nor debased, but rather reinforced, the main pur
pose of adoration, namely thanksgiving and supplication,
it has added a new object which, though in itself second
ary, has become inseparable from the notion of sacrifice
in consequence of the Fall.
These considerations explain the usual division into
sacrifices of adoration (sacrificia latreutica), sacrifices of
thanksgiving (sacrificia eucharistica) , sacrifices of sup
plication or petition (sacrificia impetratoria), and sacri
fices of expiation or propitiation (sacrificia propitiatoria).
As these four objects can never be entirely separated,
the various kinds of sacrifice owe their specific appella
tions solely to the special emphasis laid on the principal
purpose for which each is offered.
c) A most important element in the concept of sac
rifice is the symbolic substitution of some other creature
for man." The gift takes the place of the giver. By
sacrificing an object over which he has control, and
offering it up entirely to God, man acknowledges God s
overlordship over his person and life, and it is the latter
which is symbolically offered up and destroyed."2
This symbolism is based on the very nature of sac
rifice. The acknowledgment of God as the sovereignLord of the universe has its human correlative in
man s humble subjection and surrender of himself to
his Maker. The most precious gift which man has re
ceived from God is life. Since he cannot surrender this
-God demands no human sacrifices He offers it upsymbolically by destroying or transforming and present-
2 Jos. Dahlmann, S. J., Der Idea- sophie im Zeitalter der Opfermystik,lismus der indischen Religionsphilo- p. 22, Freiburg 1901.
ii4 OFFICES OF THE REDEEMER
ing in his own stead some living or inanimate creature.
This vicarious act assumes its deepest significance in the
sacrifice of propitiation, by which, in addition to manifest
ing the sentiments already mentioned, man confesses his
guilt and admits that he has deserved death in punishmentfor his sins. It is in this sense that St. Thomas explains
the Old Testament holocausts." The slaughtering of ani
mals," he says,"
signifies the destruction of sins and that
men are deserving of death for their sins, as if those ani
mals were killed in their stead to denote the expiation
of their sins."3 The ethical significance of sacrifice is
based on this same consideration. The highest act of
divine worship, coupled as it ever should be with sin
cere contrition and an ardent desire to be reconciled to
God, cannot but elevate, cleanse, and sanctify the human
heart, especially in view of the fact that God s will to
save all men and the legitimate institution of the sacri
ficial rite confirm human expectation and constitute a rich
source of consolation.
d) The Sacrifice of the Cross is not only a true
sacrifice, but in contradistinction to the sacri-
ficium incruentum (Hebrew, n9) specifically a
bloody sacrifice. What constitutes the differ
ence between the two? It cannot be the person of the lawful minister, nor yet the final
object of all sacrifice (except in so far as propitiation must plainly be the prevailing motive of
every bloody sacrifice). Hence we shall have to
3 S. Theol., la 2ae, qu. 102, art. animalia loco eorum occiderentur ad3, ad 5: "Per occisionem anima- significandam expiationem peccato-lium significatur destructio pecca- rum." Cfr. N. Giehr, The Holytorum et quod homines erant digni Sacrifice of the Mass, pp. 35 sqq.,
occisione pro peccatis suis, ac si ilia 3rd ed., St. Louis 1908.
A BLOODY SACRIFICE 115
seek for the specific difference in the materia and
forma.
The materia remota of a bloody sacrifice, as its veryname suggests, must be a living creature endowed with
blood (yictima, hostia). Its materia proximo, is the
slaying of the victim, accompanied by an effusion of
the life-giving fluid (mactatio cum sanguinis effusione).
In regard to the physical forma there is room for a differ
ence of opinion, as we do not know for certain whether
the sacrificial act (actio sacrifica), strictly so called, is
the slaying of the victim or its oblation. The latter
opinion is the more probable, though not certain. First,
because the act of slaying, as such, with its con
sequent shedding of blood, does not necessarily indicate
the purpose of the sacrifice, and consequently requires a
more specific determinant, i. e., the act of oblation.
Secondly, because in the Mosaic sacrifice the victim was
slain by laymen and temple servants, while the oblation
of the blood was a function reserved to the lawfully
appointed priesthood.4
Third, because it is impossible
to assume that Christ s bloody sacrifice on the Cross con
sisted in the material acts of cruelty committed by His
barbarous executioners.
Hence a bloody sacrifice must be defined as"
the visible
oblation of a living creature, the slaying of which is
accompanied by the shedding of blood, by a lawful min
ister, in acknowledgment of the supreme sovereignty of
God, and especially to propitiate His anger."5
2. THE DOGMA. The Church has formally
defined, against the Socinians and the Rationalists,
4 Cfr. P. Scholz, Die hi. Alter- 5 Cfr. Becanus, De Triplici Sacri-
tiimer des Volkes Israel, II, 134 ficio, Naturae, Legis, Gratiae, Opusc.
sqq., Ratisbon 1868. II, Lugduni 1631.
Ii6 OFFICES OF THE REDEEMER
that Christ s vicarious atonement was a bloody
sacrifice, made for the purpose of reconciling
the human race to God (sacrificium propitiato-
rium. )
The Council of Ephesus (A. D. 431) declared against
Nestorius :
" For He offered Himself up for us as an
odor of sweetness to God the Father. Hence if any one
say that the Divine Logos Himself was not made our
High Priest G and Apostle ... let him be anathema."T
The Council of Trent, in defining the Holy Sacrifice
of the Mass, bases its definition on the dogma that
Christ s bloody death on the Cross was a true sacrifice:
"
Though He was about to offer Himself once on the
altar of the Cross unto God the Father . . . that He
might leave a visible sacrifice . . . whereby that bloody
sacrifice, once to be accomplished on the Cross, might be
represented, . . . He offered up to God the Father His
own body and blood under the species of bread and
wine ... [In the Mass] that same Christ is contained
and immolated in an unbloody manner, who once offered
Himself in a bloody manner on -the altar of the Cross.
. . . For the victim is one and the same, the same now
offering by the ministry of priests, who then offered
Himself on the Cross, the manner alone of offering be
ing different."8
6 dp^ie/Jed- sacrificium, quo cruentum illud
7 "Obtulit enim semetipsum pro semel in cruce peragendum reprae-
nobis in odorem suavitatis Deo et sentarctur, . . . corpus et san-
Patri. Si quis ergo Pontificem et guinem suum sub speciebus panis
Apostolum nostrum dicit factum et vini Deo Patri obtulit. . . . [In
non ipsum Dei Verbum . . ., ana- Missa] idem ille Christus . . . in-
thema sit." Synod. Ephes., can. 10. cruente immolatur, qni in ara crucis
(Denzinger-Bannwart, n. 122.) semel seipsum cruente obtulit . . .
8 "Etsi semel seipsum in ara cru- Una eademque est hostia, idem nunc
cis morte intercedente Deo Patri afferent sacerdotum ministerio, qui
oblaturus erat, . , . ut relinqueret seipsum tune in cruce obtulit, sola
A BLOODY SACRIFICE 117
a) The Scriptural proof of our dogma is based
partly on the Old and partly on the New Testa
ment.
) The argument from the Old Testament
may be stated in the terms of a syllogism, thus:
The sacrifices of the Old Law, which were almost
exclusively bloody oblations, culminated in the
idea that the Israelite, conscious of having de
served death for his sins, substituted brute ani
mals in his own stead and offered them to God as
a means of propitiation. Now all the sacrifices of
the Old Law were merely types of Christ s death
on the Cross. Therefore Christ s death must be
as truly a vicarious sacrifice of blood and propitia
tion as were the sacrifices of the Old Testament.
Proof of the Major Premise. There is no need of dem
onstrating the proposition that the Old Testament sacri
fices were true sacrifices, as this is denied by no one. That
the Jews practiced symbolic substitution is obvious from
the sacrificial rites which they employed. Aside from cer
tain unbloody oblations of altogether minor importance
they offered three different kinds of sacrifices : burnt offer
ings, peace offerings, and offerings for sin. All three
required the imposition of hands on the head of the
victim to symbolize that the sins of the people were
heaped upon it. Thus, when the multitude had trans
gressed a divine command through ignorance, they
had to bring a sin-offering to the door of the taber-
offerendi ratione diversa." (Cone, 940; cfr. also can. 3-4, ibid. n. 950,
Trid., Sess. XXII, cap. i and 2 951.)
Denzinger Bannwart, No. 938 and
ii8 OFFICES OF THE REDEEMER
nacle in the shape of a calf. Lev. IV, 13-20: "And
the ancients of the people shall put their hands upon
the head thereof before the Lord; and the calf being
immolated in the sight of the Lord, the priest that is
anointed shall carry off the blood into the tabernacle of
the testimony. . . . And the priest praying for them,
the Lord will be merciful unto them." On the Feast
of Expiation two buck goats were led up to the door
of the tabernacle, and one of them was slain as a
sin offering. With regard to the other the Mosaic
law ordained as follows :
" Then let him [the high
priest] offer the living goat: and putting both hands
upon his head, let him confess all the iniquities of the
children of Israel, and all their offences and sins: and
praying that they may light on his head, he shall turn
him out by a man ready for it, into the desert. Andwhen the goat hath carried all their iniquities into an
uninhabited land, and shall be let go into the desert,
Aaron shall return into the tabernacle of the testimony."9
What was thus symbolized in the sacrificial rite is ex
plicitly set forth in the prohibition of blood, Lev. XVII,n : ". . . the life of the flesh is in the blood: and
I have given it to you, that you may make atonement
with it upon the altar for your souls, and the blood maybe for an expiation of the soul." The text we have
previously quoted from Isaias (Is. LIII, 4 sqq.), derives
its deeper significance from the sacrificial rite described
by the same prophet (Is. LII, 15; LIII, 7, io).10
Proof of the Minor Premise. The minor premise of
our syllogism can be demonstrated from St. Paul s Epis
tle to the Hebrews, particularly Chapters 8 to io. As
the Old Law had but"
a shadow of the good things to
Lev. XVI, 9; XVI, 20 sqq. bauer, Erklarung des Propheten10 Supra, p. 46. Cfr. Knaben- Isaias, Freiburg 1881.
A BLOODY SACRIFICE 119
come,"1X so in particular its sacrifices merely prefigured
the one great sin-offering on the Cross. Being" weak
and needy elements," it was impossible that"
the blood
of oxen and goats"
should"
take away sin."12 The
student will be able to appreciate the full force of this
argument only after a careful perusal of the whole Epistle. If the Mosaic sacrifices were real and vicarious,
this must be true in a far higher sense of the sacrifice
of the Cross, which they foreshadowed. 13
P) The argument from the New Testament is
based on the Epistle to the Hebrews, with its
explicit assertion that the typical sacrifices of the
Old Law found their consummation and perfection in the one true sacrifice of the Cross. In a
variety of phrases St. Paul reiterates the funda
mental truth that, as priest and victim in one per
son, Jesus Christ by a single bloody offeringatoned for the sins of men and once for all con
summated their eternal salvation.
To quote only a few salient passages :
"
For if the
blood of goats and of oxen, and the ashes of an heifer
being sprinkled, sanctify such as are defiled, to the
cleansing of the flesh: how much more shall the blood
of Christ, who by the Holy Ghost offered himself un
spotted unto God,14 cleanse our conscience from dead
works to serve the living God ?" 13 " So also Christ
was offered once to exhaust the sins of many."16 "
In
11 Heb. X, i. 14 tavrbv Trpoa^veyKev12 Heb. X, 4. Cfr. Gal. IV, g. r <5 Gew.13 Cfr. Franzelin, De Verbo In- 15 Heb. IX, 13-14.
carnato, thes. 49, Rome 1881; Hugo ie #7ra irpoffevexQels els rb iro\-
Weiss, Die messianischen Vorbilder \u>v dveveyKeiv apaprtas- Heb.im Alien Testament, Freiburg 1905. IX, 28.
120 OFFICES OF THE REDEEMER
the which will we are sanctified by the oblation of the
body of Jesus Christ alone."17 "
But this man [Christ]
offering one sacrifice for sins,18 for ever sitteth on the
right hand of God."19 "
For by one oblation 20 he hath
perfected for ever them that are sanctified."21
The sacrificial character of the death of our
Divine Lord is expressly inculcated in many other
passages of the New Testament.
Cfr. Matth. XX, 28:"
Filius hominis non venit
ministrari, sed nrinistrare et dare animam snam redemp-tionem pro multls 22 - The Son of man is not come to be
ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a
redemption for many." Christ here emphasizes three
momenta, viz.: sacrifice, atonement, and the vicarious
character of that atonement." To give one s life
" 23is a
distinctly hieratic and sacrificial term ;
"
for many" 24
denotes vicarious satisfaction, and "
redemption" 25 in
dicates expiation. It follows from this important text
that the expression"
for many"
or"
for all,"
26 which
occurs so frequently in the New Testament, when used
in connection with sacrifice means, not only"
for the
benefit of many," but also"
instead of many." Cfr.
Eph. V, 2 :
"
Tradidit semetipsum pro nobis oblationem
et hostiam Deo 27 in odorem suavitatis Christ . . .
hath delivered himself for us, an oblation and a sacrifice
to God for an odor of sweetness."28
I Tim. II, 6:
17 Heb. X, 10. 24 avrl TTO\\WV, not merely virlp18 fnav VTrep a/jLapnuv irpocrevty- TroXXwy.
KO.S Ovatav- 25 \vrpov (strictly, ransom).19 Heb. X, 12. 26
inrep 7rd\\uv, pro multis.
20mq. yap Trpoffcfiopa.
27Traptdwicev eavrbv inrep ij/Jiuv
21 Heb. X, 14. Trpoff(f)opav itai 6vo~iav-
22 /cat dovvai ryv ^v^v avrov 28 irpoafyopa here means sacrifice
\vrpov dvrl TroXXdJj/. n general, 0vffia> bloody sacrifice.
23 SoVVCLl TT]V
A BLOODY SACRIFICE 121
"
Qui dedit redemptionem semetipsum pro omnibus,29
testimonium temporibus suis Who gave himself a re
demption for all, a testimony in due times." Referring
to the Old Testament sacrifice of the Paschal lamb, St.
Paul says in his first Epistle to the Corinthians (V, 7) :
"
Pascha nostrum immolatus est Christus For Christ
our pasch is sacrificed." The expiatory character of
our Lord s death is expressly asserted in Rom. Ill, 25 :
"
Quern proposuit Deus propitiationem30
per fidem in
sanguine ipsius Whom God hath proposed to be a
propitiation, through faith in his blood," and likewise in
the first Epistle of St. John (II, 2) :
"
Ipse est propi-
tiatio31
pro peccatis nostris, non pro nostris autem
tantum, sed etiam pro totius mundi He is the propitia
tion for our sins : and not for ours only, but also for
those of the whole world."32
b) Christian Tradition has from the first faith
fully adhered to the obvious teaching of Holy
Scripture in this matter.
The so-called Epistle of Barnabas, which was prob
ably composed at the time of the Emperor Nerva (A. D.
96-98),33 contains the following passage: "For our
sins he was going to offer the vessel of the spirit \_i. e.,
His sacred humanity] as a sacrifice,34 in order that the
type established in Isaac, who was sacrificed upon the
altar, might be fulfilled."35 Tertullian expresses himself
in a similar strain :
"
Christ, who was led like a sheep to
296 Softs eavrov avri\VTpov virtp32 Cfr. 2 Cor. V, 21.
iravraV AvTiXvrpov here means 33 Cfr. Bardenhewer-Shahan, Pa-
a ransom given vicariously, by a trology, p. 24.
representative. 34 e/^eXXe . . . TrpoffQepeiv Ovalav.30
iXaffrripiov= ft sacrifice of pro- 35 Ep. Barn., c. 7, n. 3. (Ed.
pitiation. Funk, I, 23.)
122 OFFICES OF THE REDEEMER
the slaughtering pen, had to be made a sacrifice for all
nations."36
3. THEOLOGICAL PROBLEMS. Christ vicari
ously made atonement for us by immolating Him
self; consequently, He is priest, acceptant, and
victim all in one. This gives rise to a number of
subtle theological problems, which in the main
may be reduced to three: (a) Was it in His
Godhead or manhood that Christ combined the
double function of victim and priest? (b) In
what sense did He simultaneously offer and
accept the sacrifice of the Cross? (c) Wherein
precisely did the actio sacrifica of His bloodysacrifice consist?
a) The first question must be decided on
Christological principles as follows. The victim
(victima, hostia) of the sacrifice of the Cross wasthe Godman, or, more specifically, the Divine
Logos in person, though not, of course, throughthe functions of His Divine, but those of His
human nature.
To assert that the human nature of our Lord alone
was sacrificed on the Cross would be equivalent to Nes-
torianism. To hold that it was the Godhead as such
that was crucified and sacrificed, would savor of Theo-
paschitic Monophysitism. Both heretical extremes are
avoided by saying that the Divine Logos was indeed
86 Adv. lud., c. 13. For other Genugtuung Christi, 7-10, Pader-Patristic texts bearing on this sub- born 1891.
ject see Dorholt, Die Lehre -von der
THEOLOGICAL PROBLEMS 123
sacrificed (principium quod), but only according to His
passible manhood (principium quo). This propositionis an immediate deduction from the dogma of the
Hypostatic Union.
A similar answer may be given to the cognate question :
In what way did Christ officiate as a priest? In other
words, Did He offer the sacrifice of the Cross (i. e., Himself) to God in His human or in His Divine Nature?
The correct answer depends on a true conception of
the nature of the Hypostatic Union. Nestorius believed
that Jesus Christ .and the Logos-Son were two separateand distinct persons, and hence he was entirely consistent
in teaching that the man Jesus alone was a high priest, to
the exclusion of the Divine Logos.37 The same con
clusion was forced upon the Socinians, who denied the
Trinity and consequently also the Divinity of JesusChrist. Though the Monophysites held a diametrically
opposite opinion, they too were perfectly consistent in
regarding the Divine Nature of Christ as the instrument
of mediation, redemption, and the priesthood; for they
imagined Christ s humanity to have been absorbed and
destroyed by His Divinity. We cannot, however, regardwithout surprise the illogical attitude of certain older
Protestant divines, who, despite their orthodox teachingon the Hypostatic Union, either showed Nestorian lean
ings, as e. g. Francis Stancarus (d. 1574), or, like cer
tain Calvinists and Zwinglians in Switzerland, adoptedthe Monophysitic view that Christ was our Mediator and
High Priest qua Logos and not qua man.38 The truth
lies between these extremes. The Godman was a true
priest, not, however, in His divine, but solely in His
human nature.39
37 Cfr. Concilium Ephes., can. 10. V. supra, p. 116.38 For details consult Bellarmine, De Christo, V, 2-3.39 Cfr. St. Thomas, S. Theol, 33, qu. 22, art. 2.
9
124 OFFICES OF THE REDEEMER
b) The second question is: How are we to
conceive the relation of Christ in His capacity as
sacrificing priest, to Christ as the Divine Logos,
to whom the sacrifice of the Cross was offered?
To solve this problem correctly we shall have to
bear in mind the truths set forth in the first part
of this treatise with regard to the mediatorshipof our Lord.40
It will not do to represent the first Person of the
Blessed Trinity as the sole acceptor of the sacrifice of
the Cross, and Christ merely as the sacrificing priest,
though this opinion has found some defenders amongCatholic divines. It was the Trinity, or God qua God,who had been offended by sin
; consequently the sacrifice
of the Cross had to be offered up as a propitiation to
the entire Trinity. Hence Christ not only offered upthe sacrifice of the Cross, but He also accepted it, thoughof course only in His capacity as God, conjointly with the
Father and the Holy Ghost. The Patristic phrase,
adopted by the Council of Trent, that Christ"
offered
Himself unto God the Father," must therefore be ex
plained as an appropriation.41
From what we have said it appears that Christ exer
cised in a most wonderful manner three distinct func
tions, viz.: that of sacrificial victim, that of the sacrificing
priest, and that of the accepting God. As God He ac
cepts His own sacrifice; as Godman (or Logos) He is
both victim (victima) and sacrificing priest (sacerdos),
though only according to His human nature. St. Augustine
40 Supra, pp. 5 sqq. Preuss, The Divine Trinity, pp. 244
41 V. supra, pp. 67 sq. On the sqq.
Divine Appropriations see Pohle-
THEOLOGICAL PROBLEMS 125
beautifully explains this in his famous work De Civitate
Dei." And hence that true Mediator, in so far as, by as
suming the form of a servant, He became the Mediatorbetween God and men, the man Christ Jesus, though in
the form of God He received [accepted] sacrifice to
gether with the Father, with whom He is one God, yetin the form of a servant He chose rather to be than
to receive a sacrifice, that not even by this instance anyone might have occasion to suppose that sacrifice should
be rendered to any creature. Thus He is both the
Priest who offers and the Sacrifice offered."42
c) As regards the sacrificial act itself, it did
not formally consist in the killing of the victim.
To hold that it did, would involve the blasphemousconclusion that the sacrificing priests on Calvary werethe brutal soldiers who tortured our Lord and nailed
Him to the Cross. No, the real priest was Jesus Christ
Himself; His executioners were merely unconscious in
struments in the hands of Providence.
If Christ was the sacrificing priest, it follows that
He alone performed the sacrificial act.
This sacrificial act did not consist in self-immolation.
That would have been sheer suicide. It consisted in the
voluntary oblation of His Blood, which He allowed to
be shed (extrinsic factor) and which He offered to Al
mighty God with a true sacrificial intent (intrinsic factor).It was this voluntary oblation of His life and blood
42 De Civ. Dei, X, 20. "Verus -forma servi sacrificium maluit esseille mediator, inquantum formant quam sumere, ne vel hoc occasioneservi accipiens mediator effectus est quisquam existimaret cuilibet sacri-Dei et hominum, homo Christus ficandum esse creaturae. Per hoc et
lesus, quum in forma Dei sacrificium sacerdos est, ipse offerens, ipse etcum Patre sumat [accept et], cum oblatio." (Cfr. De Trinit., IV, 14,quo et unus Deus est, tamen in 19).
126 OFFICES OF THE REDEEMER
(oblatio vitae et sanguinis) which constituted the formal
element, and consequently the essence of the sacrifice of
the Cross.43
This also explains why martyrdom is not a true sac
rifice. It has not been instituted as such by God, and,
furthermore, no martyr can dispose of his life and blood
with the sovereign liberty enjoyed by our Lord, who had
absolute control over all the circumstances surrounding
His death and gave up His soul when and how He
pleased.44
43 Cfr. John X, 18. gelium des hi. Johannes, pp. 511
44 Cfr. Franzelin, De Verbo In- sqq., Freiburg 1905.
carnato, thes. 50; Belser, Das Evan-
SECTION 2
CHRIST A TRUE PRIEST
"
Priest"
and"
Sacrifice"
being correlative terms,
the priesthood of our Lord Jesus Christ is a logical and
necessary corollary of His sacrifice on the Cross. Sacred Scripture expressly confirms this deduction.
The concept of"
priesthood"
embraces two essential
elements, vis.: (i) unction or ordination, and (2) the
offering of sacrifice. To these may be added, as an
integral part, sacerdotal prayer. In the case of Christ,
moreover, the Bible lays special stress (3) on the eter
nity of His priesthood. We shall develop these consid
erations in the form of three separate theses.
Thesis I : Christ s unction or ordination to the office
of high priest took place at the moment of His In
carnation.
This thesis voices the common teaching of
Catholic divines.
Proof. If, as we shall show in our next thesis,
Christ was truly "a priest according to the order
of Melchisedech,"1 His priesthood must have
begun simultaneously with His Incarnation, i. e.,
at the moment in which the Divine Logos as
sumed human flesh in the womb of the Virgin.The Divine Logos could not have been a priest be-
iHeb. V, 6; VI, 20.
127
128 OFFICES OF THE REDEEMER
fore His Incarnation, because then He was not
yet the Godman. Nor was He anointed or conse
crated by any special act subsequent to His Incar
nation. Hence His ordination must have coin
cided with the inception of the Hypostatic Union.
This view is confirmed by St. Paul in his Epistle to
the Hebrews. Heb. X, 5 :
"
Ideo ingrediens mundum2
dicit: Hostiam et oblatiqnem noluisti, corpus autem
aptasti mihi Wherefore when he cometh into the
world, he saith: Sacrifice and oblation thou wouldest
not : but a body thou hast fitted to me."3 Here the
"
fitting of a body"
for the sacrifice of the Cross,
and consequently the beginning of Christ s priesthood, is
represented as coincident with His "
coming into the
world," i. e., His conception.
In the fifth chapter of the same Epistle the Apostle
emphasizes the fact that "every high priest taken from
among men, is ordained for men in the things that apper
tain to God," and then declares that Christ did not or
dain Himself, but was "
called by God." Heb. V, 4 sq. :
"Nee quisquam sumit sibi honorem, sed qui vocatur a
Deo 4tamquam Aaron; sic et Christus non semetipsum
clarificaznt, ut ponitfex fieret,5 sed qui locutus est ad eiim
[= Pater] : Filius meus es tu, ego hodle genui te
Neither doth any man take the honor to himself, but
he that is called by God, as Aaron was. So Christ also
did not glorify himself, that he might be made a high
priest; but he that said unto him: Thou art my Son,
this day have I begotten thee."6 The "call" to the
priesthood which Christ received from His Father was
2elffepxo/J-evos els TOV Koff^ov-
5 yevydrjvai3 Cfr. Ps. XXXIX, 7.
6 Heb. V, 4 sq.
4 KO\OVfJiVOS O.TTO TOV QtOV-
CHRIST A TRUE PRIEST 129
the command to redeem the human race. This commandwent into effect at the moment of His conception. Con
sequently, Christ s priesthood began simultaneously with
the unio hypostatica.
A third argument for our thesis is based on the Sa
viour s proper name, Christus, which means the Anointed
One KOLT e|ox^v.T Whereas the Levites of the Old Testa
ment were anointed to the ministry by an accidental
unction with visible oil,8 the Godman Jesus Christ,
by virtue of the Hypostatic Union, is substantially
anointed with the invisible oil of Divinity. This sub
stantial unction, on account of the object and pur
pose of the Redemption, stands in intimate relation
ship to the priestly function which He exercised in offer
ing the sacrifice of the Cross, and therefore the Hypo-static Union as such must be regarded as Christ s
substantial ordination to the priesthood.
Some of the Fathers appear to teach that our Lord s
ordination took place before His Incarnation. It is to
be noted, however, that their manner of expression is
distinctly proleptic. What they mean is, that it was byHis Incarnation that the not yet incarnate Logos was
constituted a priest. Certain other Fathers seem to
regard Christ s baptism in the Jordan as the beginning of
His priesthood. Rightly understood, however, these
Fathers do not assert that Christ became a high priest
when He received baptism, but merely that he exercised
His priesthood for the first time on that occasion. There
is a clear-cut distinction between an office and the exer
cise of its functions; the former differs from the latter
as potency differs from act.9
7 Cfr. Pohle-Preuss, Christology, 9 Cfr. Petavius, De Incarn., XII,
pp. 228 sq. 3 and n.8 Cfr. Exod. XXIX, i sqq.; Lev.
VIII, i sqq.
130 OFFICES OF THE REDEEMER
Thesis II : During His terrestrial life Christ was a
true high priest who exercised His sacerdotal func
tions by offering sacrifice and prayer.
This proposition embodies an article of faith.
Proof. The Council of Trent defines : "Quo-
niam sub priori Testamento teste Apostolo Paulo
propter levitici sacerdotii imbecillitatem consum-
niatio non erat, oportuit Deo Patre misericor-
diarum ita ordinance sacerdotem aliuni secundum
ordinem Melchisedech surgere D. N. lesum Chri
stum, qui posset omnes, quotquot sanctificandi es-
sent, consummare et ad perfectum adducere."
Anglice : "Forasmuch as, under the former Testa
ment, according to the testimony of the Apostle
Paul, there was no perfection, because of the
weakness of the Levitical priesthood; there was
need, God the Father of mercies so ordaining,
that another priest should rise, according to the
order of Melchisedech, our Lord Jesus Christ,
who might consummate, and lead to what is per
fect, as many as were to be sanctified."10
The heretical antithesis of this dogma is the
Socinian teaching that the priesthood of our Lord
was in no sense an earthly but exclusively a
heavenly priesthood.11
a) That the priesthood of our Divine Lord
10 Cone. Trid., Sess. XXII, cap. i. 11 Cfr. F. Socinus, De Christo
(Denzinger-Bannwart, n. 938.) Servatore, P. II, c. 15.
CHRIST A TRUE PRIEST 131
was really and truly an earthly priesthood can
easily be proved from Sacred Scripture.
) To begin with the Old Testament, we needbut point to Psalm CIX, the Messianic character
of which is guaranteed by Christ Himself. 12 Thefourth verse reads as follows: "Thou art a
priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedech." Melchisedech was an earthly priest;
consequently the priesthood of Christ must be an
earthly priesthood.13
/?) The prophet Isaias, pointing to the "Man
of sorrows," i. e., the future Messias, presagesthat "he shall sprinkle many nations."
14 This
sprinkling, from the context, can only meana sacrificial sprinkling with blood (aspersio san-
guinis).15
y) No other sacred writer has portrayed the
earthly priesthood of our Lord so grandly as St.
Paul, whose Epistle to the Hebrews constitutes
one prolonged refutation of Socinianism. 16 Thegist of this Epistle may be summarized as
follows: The priesthood of Melchisedech wasfar superior to the Levitical priesthood, butthe priesthood of Christ is infinitely superior even
i2Matth. XXIII, 43 sqq. 15 Cfr. Is. LIII, 3 sqq.; Lev.13 On the heresy of the Melchise- XVI, 18 sq.; Heb. IX, 14 sqq.
dechians (who held that Melchise- ie A detailed analysis of St.dech was not a man but an incarna- Paul s Epistle to the Hebrews willtion of the Logos) see St. Augus- be found in Franzelin, De Verbotine, De Haeres., n. 34; cfr. Blunt, Incarnate, thes. 48, n. ii; cfr. alsoDictionary of Sects, pp. 304 sq., Chr. Pesch, Prael. Dogmat., Vol.new impression, London 1903. IV, 3rd ed., pp. 291 sq.
LII, 15.
i 32 OFFICES OF THE REDEEMER
to the priesthood of Melchisedech. Therefore,
Christ is the holiest, the greatest, the most perfect,
in fact the sole High Priest, and He exercised His
priesthood in the perfect sacrifice of the Cross.17
b) But the sacrifice of the Cross was not the
only sacerdotal function performed by our Divine
Redeemer. He also officiated as High Priest
when, at the Last Supper, He instituted the Holy
Sacrifice of the Mass, and when He pronounced
the sublime prayer for His disciples recorded
in the seventeenth chapter of the Gospel of St.
John.18
A priest does not always pray in his official capacity
as priest; some of his prayers are strictly private and
personal. It is only when he pronounces portions of the
sacrificial rite, such as the Mass, or liturgical prayers inti
mately connected therewith, as those of the Breviary, that
his prayer assumes a sacerdotal or hieratic character.
Christ s prayer for His disciples was a strictly sacerdotal
or hieratic act, because of its intimate relation to the sacri
fice of the Cross. The same is true of the prayers which
He uttered at the crucifixion. It is rather difficult to draw
a clear-cut line of demarcation between strictly hieratic
and purely private prayers in the case of our Divine Lord,
because His whole interior life was inseparably inter
woven with His mission as the Saviour of mankind, and
therefore also with His priesthood. However, we may
apply the term"
private"
in a wider sense to those
17 The Patristic argument for our hood may be best studied in St.
thesis is developed by Pesch, op. cit., Thomas, Summa Theologica, 3a, qu.
pp. 292 sq. The teaching of the 22 art. i.
Scholastics on Christ s earthly priest- 18 John XVII, 1-26.
CHRIST A TRUE PRIEST 133
prayers which He offered up, not for His Apostles, or
the human race in general, but for Himself, in order to
obtain personal favors from His Heavenly Father, as, for
instance, when He asked on Mount Olivet that the chalice
be removed from His lips/9 or when He petitioned for
His own glorification.
There is an essential difference between prayer and
sacrifice, which should be emphasized here. Christ wasVable to pray for Himself, but He was not able to offer
sacrifice for Himself. This has been clearly defined bythe Council of Ephesus (A. D. 431) :
"
If any one . . .
assert that He [Christ] offered Himself as a sacrifice
for Himself, and not rather for us alone, (for He whoknew absolutely no sin needed no sacrifice), let him be
anathema."20
Thesis III: Christ s priesthood continues everlast
ingly in Heaven.
This proposition also embodies an article of
faith.
Proof. In Christology21 we concluded from
the eternity of Christ s priesthood to the insep
arability of the Hypostatic Union. Here wehave to prove the antecedent. The eternity of
Christ s priesthood is an article of faith, because
clearly contained in Sacred Scripture. But the
manner in which He exercises His sacerdotal
19 Cfr. Heb. V, 7. Bannwart, n. 122). On Christ s
20 "
Si quis . . . dicit, quod pro praying cfr. St. Thomas, S. Theol,se obtulisset semetipsum oblationem, 3a, qu. 21 and L. Janssens, Deet non potius pro nobis solis (non Deo-Homine, Vol. I, pp. 720 sqq.,
enim eguit oblatione, qui peccatum Freiburg 1901.
omnino nescivit), anathema sit." 21 Pohle-Preuss, Christology, pp.
Cone. Eph., can. 10 (Denzinger- 74 sqq.
134 OFFICES OF THE REDEEMER
office in Heaven remains to be determined by the
ological reasoning.
a) The eternity of our Lord s priesthood is
taught both directly and indirectly in St. Paul s
Epistle to the Hebrews.
a) The Apostle expressly applies to Christ the Messianic verse :
:< Thou art a priest for ever 22according to
the order of Melchisectech."23 That "
for ever"
in this
passage means eternity, not a parte ante but a parte post,
and in the strict sense of the term, appears from St.
Paul s way of arguing in Heb. VII, I sqq., where he
opposes our Lord s"
everlasting priesthood"
to the tem
poral priesthood of the Levites. Moreover, he distinctly
says in Heb. VII, 23 sq. :
"
Alii quidem plures facti sunt
sacerdotes, idcirco quod morte prohiberentur permanere;hie autem eo quod maneat in aeternum** sempitcrnumhabet sacerdotium 25 And the others indeed were made
many priests, because by reason of death they were not
suffered to continue : but this, for that he continueth for
ever, hath an everlasting priesthood."
) Regarding the manner in which Christ ex
ercises His eternal priesthood in Heaven, Revela
tion teaches us nothing beyond the fact that Heis "always living to make intercession for us/
26
which is a truly sacerdotal function, because, as
St. Paul assures us, it bears an intimate relation
to the sacrifice of the Cross. Hence we may22 fls rov aiwva- 25 aTrapafiarov X t T*l v
23 Ps. CIX, 4. ai)viiv.24 5to TO /j,eveiv avrbv els r6v 26 Heb. VII, 25; Rom. VIII, 34.
al&va-
CHRIST A TRUE PRIEST 135
conclude that our Lord s intercession for us in
Heaven consists in everlastingly asserting the
sacrifice of the Cross.
Cfr. Heb. VII, 24 sqq. :
"
Sempiternum habet sacer-
dotium; unde et salvare in perpetuum poiest accedentes
per semetipsum ad Deum, semper vivens ad interpel-
landum pro nobis: tails enim 27 decebat ut nobis esset
ponttfex?* . . . qui non habet necessitatem quotidie
. . . hostias offerre; hoc enim fecit semel seipsnm offer-
endo [He] hath an everlasting priesthood, whereby he
is able also to save for ever them that come to God
by him; always living to make intercession for us. For
it was befitting that we should have such a high priest
. . . who needeth not daily ... to offer sacrifices . . .
for this he did once, in offering himself."
St. John, too, describes Christ s heavenly intercession
as intimately connected with and based upon the sacri
fice of the Cross. Cfr. i John II, I sq. :
"
Sed et si
qiiis peccaverit, adz ocatum 29 habemus apud Patrem
lesum Christum iustum; et ipse est propitiatio30
pro
peccatis nostris But if any man sin, we have an advo
cate with the Father, Jesus Christ the just: and he is
the propitiation for our sins." The same Apostle in the
Apocalypse represents Christ figuratively as a slain lamb,
i. e., a transfigured sacrificial victim. Apoc. V, 6 :
"
Et
vidi . . . Agnum stantem tamquam occisum 31 And I
saw ... a Lamb standing as it were slain." In this light
St. Ambrose s conception of the relation existing between
Christ s heavenly intercession and the marks of the five
wounds in His glorified body, as indelible witnesses
y&p.30 JXacyios
= a sacrifice of pro-
pitiation.
81<*>s
136 OFFICES OF THE REDEEMER
of His bloody sacrifice, must appeal to us as profoundly
significant :
" He refused to relinquish the woundswhich He had received for us, but preferred to take
them with Him to Heaven, in order to exhibit [them] to
His Heavenly Father [as] the purchase price of our
liberty."32
b) The doctrine of Christ s eternal priesthoodin Heaven has given rise to three separate theo
logical problems: (a) What is the precise nature of His everlasting intercession for us? (/?)
Does He continue to offer a true sacrifice in
Heaven? (y) How can His priesthood endure
after the Last Judgment, when His intercession
must of necessity cease?
) Theologians are not agreed as to whetherChrist s heavenly intercession for the humanrace is to be conceived as merely implicit (inter
pretative*), or as explicit (formalis).
The former view is held by Vasquez and Thomassin,the latter and more probable one by Petavius. AsChrist actually prayed for us while on earth, there is noreason to assume that His continued intercession in
Heaven is silent or merely implicit, especially in view ofthe promise which He gave His Apostles that He wouldask the Father to send them another Paraclete. Cfr.
John XIV, 16: "And I will ask the Father, and heshall give you another Paraclete." Why weaken theterm
"
ask "
or"
petition"
(rogare, ipurSv) to prop the
32 St. Ambrose, In Luc., X, n. ut Deo Patrl nostrae pretia liberta-170: "Vulnera accepta pro nobis tis ostenderet."
coelo inferre maluit, abolere noluit,
CHRIST A TRUE PRIEST 137
doubtful hypothesis that His intercession is merely vir
tual ?
Certain of the Fathers seem to contradict the view de
fended by Petavius. But the construction put upon their
utterances by Vasquez and Thomassin is untenable. In
reality these Fathers merely wish to emphasize the fact
that the theandric prayer of Jesus has none of the de
fects necessarily inherent in purely human prayer, such
as indigence, a feeling of helplessness and guilt, an ap
peal to mercy, etc. The theandric intercession of our
heavenly Advocate is based upon the infinite satisfaction
which He has given for us, and hence is in no wise
an humble supplication for grace, but a confident asser
tion of His merits on behalf of those whom He has re
deemed. This is one of the reasons why the Church
does not pray or instruct her children to pray :
" Lord
Jesus, intercede for us !
"
but :
"
Christ, hear us !
"
"
Christ, have mercy on us !
" 33
/?) Our second question, it may be well to
premise, has nothing whatever to do with the So-
cinian error that Jesus offered no true sacri
fice on earth but became the High Priest of hu
manity only after His Ascension into Heaven.
Accepting the sacrificial character of His death,
theologians merely ask: Does He continue to
offer a true sacrifice for us in Heaven?
Thalhofer 34 answered this question in the affirmative,
and his view has been adopted by L. Zill35 and P.
33 Cfr. Franzelin, De Verbo In- 34 Das Opfer des Alien und Neuen
carnato, thes. 51, n. iii; De Lugo, De Bundes, pp. 201 sqq., Ratisbon 1870.
Myst. Incarnationis, disp. 27, sect. 35 Der Brief an die Hebrder, pp.
4, n. 61 sqq. 430 sqq., Mainz 1879.
138 OFFICES OF THE REDEEMER
Schoulza.36 The purpose of these writers in taking the
position they do is twofold: (i) to gain a basis for a
reasonable explanation of the metaphysical essence of
the Sacrifice of the Mass, and (2) to give a tangible con
tent to the Scriptural teaching of Christ s eternal priest
hood.
Thalhofer declares the formal element of sacrifice to
consist, not in the exterior oblation of the victim, which is
in some manner or other transformed, but solely in the
interior disposition of the sacrificing priest. But this
theory is contrary to the common teaching of Catholic
divines and does not square with certain generally ad
mitted facts. Granted that the disposition of the sac
rificing priest is the intrinsic and invisible forma, and
consequently the most important part of a sacrifice; yet
it can never supply the extrinsic physical form. Christ s
constant pointing to His wounds, of which Thalhofer
makes so much, is merely a significant gesture which
effects no intrinsic transformation of the kind strictly
demanded by the notion of sacrifice. Zill attempted to
construct a Scriptural basis for Thalhofer s theory, but
his deductions had already been substantially refuted by
Tournely in his argument against Faustus Socinus.37St.
Paul, far from asserting that Christ offers sacrifice in
Heaven, or that He continues His earthly sacrifice there,
expressly declares that our Lord merely asserts ad mo-
dum interpellationis and forever the sacrifice He has
once for all consummated on the Cross. This interpella
tion can in no wise be construed as a sacrifice.38
86 Liturgia Catholica Fidel Magis- 38 Cfr. F. Stentrup, Soteriologia,
tra, Insulis 1901. thes. 82; Pesch, Prael. Dogmat*,37 Tournely, De Incarn., qu. 5, Vol. IV, 3rd ed., pp. 300 sqq.
art. 2\ cfr. Franzelin, De Verbo In-
carnato, p. 539.
CHRIST A TRUE PRIEST 139
y) There remains the third question: Howcan Christ s priesthood endure forever, since
after the Last Judgment not only the hypotheticalsacrifice construed by Thalhofer, but likewise Hisintercession for us must needs cease?
There can be no doubt whatever that our Lord s
priestly intercession in Heaven will end with the last
Mass celebrated on earth. Nevertheless, His priesthoodwill continue, in a threefold respect, (i) He will re
main "
a priest for ever"
in dignity (secundum digni
tatem), because His sacerdotal character stands or falls
with the Hypostatic Union, and consequently is indelible
and incapable of being lost.39
(2) Christ s priesthoodendures eternally in respect of its effectiveness (secun-dum effectum), in so far as the fruits of the sacrifice
of the Cross are unceasingly renewed in the grace and
glory enjoyed by the Elect in Heaven. 40(3) Christ
remains the eternal High Priest of humanity secundumaffectum; for, while He does not offer up a perpetualsacrifice in the strict and proper sense of the term, Hecauses a sweet burnt-offering of unending adoration and
thanksgiving to rise before the throne of the Most HolyTrinity, which is after all the ultimate purpose andend of all creation.
39 Cfr. Thesis I, supra, pp. 127 sacrificii consequuntur. Finis autent
s^- sacrificii quod Christus obtulit, non40 Cfr. St. Thomas, S. TheoL, 33, fuerunt bona temporalia, sed
qu. 22, art. 5: "In officio sacerdotis aeterna, quae per eius mortem adi-duo possunt considerari: primo qui- piscimur." L. c., ad 2:
"
Licet pas-dem ipsa oblatio sacrificii, secundo sio et mors Christi de caetero nonipsa sacrificii consummatio, quae sint iteranda, tamen virtus illius
quidem consistit in hoc, quod illi hostiae semel oblatae permanet infro quibus sacrificium offertur, finem aeternum."
10
CHAPTER II
CHRIST S PROPHETICAL OFFICE
i. DEFINITION OF THE TERM "PROPHET."
The word "Prophet"is etymologically derived
from the Greek verb *p6<faiu> to say beforehand,
to foretell (Hebr. P =vates, seer). In a
wider sense it signifies a teacher (magister,
; Hebr. ^ = speaker, orator).1
The Bible employs the term Prophet in both mean
ings, most frequently however in the latter. Old Testa
ment prophetism was not limited to extraordinary pre
dictions of future events, but comprised primarily the
ordinary teaching office, which was clothed with di
vine authority and exercised by instruction, admonition,
warnings, and threats. The so-called prophetic schools
of the Jews were colleges founded for the training of
professional teachers of religion, not of prophets in the
strict sense of the term.2
To say that Christ exercised the office or func
tion of a prophet, is equivalent to saying that
He possessed in the highest degree the gift of
prophecy (donum prophetiae) and the vocation
1 Cfr. Maas, Christ in Type and in Libras V. T., Vol. II, pp. 267
Prophecy, Vol. I, pp. 82 sqq. sqq., Paris 1887; Maas, op. cit.,
2 Cfr. R. Comely, Introd. Spec. Vol. I, 108 sqq.
I4O
CHRIST A TRUE PROPHET 141
of a teacher (magisterium) . Soteriology deals
with Him only as a teacher.
2. THE PROPHETIC TEACHING OFFICE OFCHRIST. The Old Testament prophets hailed the
future Messias as a teacher of truth, and when
Jesus Christ appeared in Palestine, He actuallyexercised the functions of a teacher in the mostexalted sense of the term.
a) Moses, who both as the founder of a religion anda teacher par excellence, is a prominent type of the
Messias, uttered the famous prophecy registered in Deut.
XVIII, 15 :
" The Lord thy God will raise up a prophet3
of thy nation and of thy brethren like unto me : him thou
shalt hear."4 This passage is expressly applied to Christ
in the New Testament. 5
Isaias foretells that the coming Messias will deliver
humanity from sin and error. Is. LXI, I sq. :
" Thespirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord hath
anointed me : he hath sent me to preach to the meek, to
heal the contrite of heart, and to preach a release to the
captives, and deliverance to them that are shut up; to
proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the dayof vengeance of our God: to comfort all that mourn."
Christ Himself publicly read this passage in the syna
gogue at Nazareth, and when he had folded the book,
3X"3J Christ, whom heaven indeed must
receive, until the times of the resti-Cfr. Deut. XVIII, 18. tution of all things, which God hath
5 Acts III, 22 sqq. "Be penitent, spoken by the mouth of hig ho]ytherefore, and be converted, that
prophets, from the beginning of theyour sins may be blotted out; that world . For Moses said: A prophetwhen the times of refreshment shall shall the Lord your God raise upcome from the presence of the Lord, unto you of your brethren> iike untoand he shall send him who hath me: him you shall hear> ^ t
been preached unto you, Jesus
I42 OFFICES OF THE REDEEMER
said (Luke IV, 21): "This day is fulfilled this scrip
ture in your ears."6
b) The New Testament has confirmed the ful
filment of the Old Testament prophecies. It has
also demonstrated their truth. When Jesus was
engaged in recruiting His disciples, Philip said to
Nathanael: "We have found him of whomMoses in the law, and the prophets did write,
Jesus the son of Joseph of Nazareth."7
It was
with the utmost confidence that our Lord appealed
to Moses : Think not that I will accuse you to
the Father. There is one that accuseth you,
Moses, in whom you trust. For if you did be
lieve Moses, you would perhaps believe me also;
for he wrote of me."8 After He had fed five
thousand people with a few loaves of bread, those
who had witnessed the miracle enthusiastically
exclaimed: This is of a truth the prophet that
is to come into the world."9 When He had
raised the widow s son to life, there came a fear
on those about Him, "and they glorified God,
saying : A great prophet10
is risen up among
us; and, God hath visited his people."
c) Christ exercised His teaching office by jour
neying about Palestine and preaching the glad
tidings of salvation.
6 Cfr. Matth. V, 5.9 6 TT/XN^TTJS 6 epxofJ-evos els rbv
1 John i, 45. Kharkov- John VI, 14.
8 John V, 45 sq. 10irpocfr fjTrjs
11 Luke VII, 1 6.
CHRIST A TRUE PROPHET 143
St. Matthew records that"
the people were in admira
tion at his doctrine; for he was teaching them as one
having power, and not as the scribes and Pharisees."12
He presented Himself as the absolute Teacher of truth.
Cfr. John XVIII, 37: "For this was I born, and for
this came I into the world, that I should give testimonyto the truth." For it was "
His Father" who spoke
through Him,13 and He Himself was "
the way, and the
truth, and the life."14
Consequently, there can be no
other teacher beside or above Him :
"
Neither be ye called
masters;for one is your master,
15Christ."
16 Acknowl
edging Him as the sovereign teacher of mankind, Nico-
demus says :
"
Rabbi, we know that thou art come a
teacher from God;for no man can do these signs which
thou dost, unless God be with him."17 Even so great
a teacher as St. John the Baptist literally paled in the
glorious halo which encircled the Divine Master :
" Hewas not the light, but was to give testimony of the
light."
18
Nor must we forget the power of our Saviour s ex
ample, which more effectively even than His words
prompted men to embrace the truth and lead a virtuous
life. Fully realizing that"
Example serves where pre
cept fails," St. Luke in writing his Gospel, as he him
self admits,19 was chiefly concerned with the things
which"
Jesus began to do and to teach."20 That it was
the Redeemer s express purpose to set a good exampleis manifest from His own declaration in John XIII, 15:"
For I have given you an example,21 that as I have
12 Matth. VII, 28 sq. 18 John I, 8. Cfr. Pohle-Preuss,13 Cfr. John XIV, 10; XVII, 8. Christology, pp. 31 sqq.; H. Schell,
14 John XIV, 6. Jahve und Christus, pp. 403 sqq.,
15 Magister, /ca^^Tjrrjs. Paderborn 1905.
16 Matth. XXIII, 10. Cfr. John 19 Acts I, i.
XIII, 13- 20 iroielv re Kdl Si8dffKi9>
17 John III, 2. 21
144 OFFICES OF THE REDEEMER
done to you, so you do also." St. Paul strongly insists
on the importance of our being made comformable to
the image of the Son of God,22 and did not rest until
Christ had been formed in all his hearers.23 Christ
was the beau-ideal of virtue, because He was without sin ;
and His example was most effective, because He was im
pelled by supreme charity. This accounts for the inex
haustible power which flows from the"
Imitation of
Christ" and never ceases to purify, ennoble, energize, and
rejuvenate men and to lead them on to moral perfection.
In confirmation of this truth we need but point to the
lives of the Saints.2 *
d) For an adequate theological explanation of
the singular greatness and perfection of Christ s
prophetical office we must go to its fountain-
head, the Hypostatic Union.
a) Endowed with a fulness of knowledge unparalleled
in the history of the human race, Jesus was in a position
to propound His teaching with absolute certainty and ir
resistible conviction. 25Equipped with miraculous pow
ers and the gift of prophecy, He was able to confirm and
seal His words by signs and miracles. As the super
natural Head of grace, He was in the altogether unique
position of one able to enlighten his hearers with the torch
of faith and to fire their hearts with His grace. In all
three of these respects He has absolutely no peer amongmen, and it is sheer folly to compare Him with Socrates
22 Rom. VIII, 29. ing of the Fathers consult Petavius,
23 Gal. IV, 19. De Incarn., II, 10; Stentrup, Soteri-
24 Cfr. S. Raue, O. F. M., Chri- ologia, thes. 134 sqq.
*tus als Ersieher. Eine methodische 25 Cfr. Pohle-Preuss, Christology,
Studie iiber das hi. Evangelium, and PP- 249 sqq.
ed., Freiburg 1902. For the teach-
CHRIST A TRUE PROPHET 145
or even with the greatest of the prophets, Moses and Johnthe Baptist
/?) Nor can it be urged as an argument against the
sublimity of His prophetical office, that Jesus addressed
Himself only to the Jews of Palestine. He had excellent
reasons for confining His personal activity to that particular nation and country. We will enumerate four of the
principal ones given by St. Thomas.26(i) He had to
fulfil the promises which God had made to the Jews in
the Old Testament. (2) It was becoming that the Gos
pel should reach the gentiles through the instrumentalityof God s Chosen People. (3) Jesus had to pay due re
gard to the peculiar mentality of the Jewish nation. (4)The method He chose was better adapted than any other
to demonstrate the triumphant power of the Cross. After
His Resurrection He sent out His disciples to teach and
baptize all nations, and when He had ascended into
Heaven, He appointed a special Apostle for the gentiles.
His teaching was as open and public as the scene of His
activity. Unlike the pagan philosophers, He made no
distinction between esoteric and exoteric truths. His
motto was :
" That which I tell you in the dark, speak
ye in the light: and that which you hear in the ear,
preach ye upon the housetops."27
y) Our Divine Lord had very good reasons for dis
daining to consign His heavenly teaching to books. It
eminently befitted His high office as Teacher of mankind to employ the most perfect mode of teaching,
namely oral instruction, which goes straight to the heart
and reaches all, even those who are unable to read. It wasfor this same reason, in the opinion of St. Thomas, that
He commanded His Church to instruct by word of mouth
26 S. TheoL, 33, qu. 42, art. i.
27 Matth. X, 27. Cfr. St. Thomas, S. TheoL, 33, qu. 42, art. 3.
146 OFFICES OF THE REDEEMER
and constituted oral tradition a source of faith side byside with Sacred Scripture. Some of the wisest menof antiquity (e. g., Socrates and Pythagoras) exercised a
tremendous influence over succeeding generations without
ever having recourse to the stylus or the pen. Oral in
struction was admirably adapted to the propagation of
Christianity. Had our Lord presented His teaching in
the form of bookish lore, consigned to parchment or papy
rus, it would have become a veritable apple of discord.
Then again, in the words of St. Thomas,"
those whorefused to believe what the Apostles wrote, would not
have believed Christ Himself had He consigned His doc
trines to writing.":
3. THE ECCLESIASTICAL MAGISTERIUM A CONTINUATION OF CHRIST S PROPHETICAL OFFICE.
As the priesthood of our Divine Lord is con
tinued on earth by the celebration of the HolySacrifice of the Mass and the administration of
the Sacraments, especially Holy Orders, so His
prophetic office is continued by the magisteriumof the Catholic Church.
a) The very fact that Christ established a Church to
teach"
all nations"
shows that He wished her to continue
His prophetical office. He guaranteed her His special
assistance and promised to be with her"
all days, even to
the consummation of the world."29
Having established
her as a teacher, He sent her the Spirit of Truth, who
28 S. TheoL, 1. c. On the apoc- Les Origines de TEglise d Edesse et
ryphal correspondence between our la Legende d Abgar, Paris 1888; H.Lord and Abgar, King of Edessa, Leclerq, art. "Abgar" in the Catholic
cfr. R. A. Lipsius, Die edessenische Encyclopedia, Vol. I, pp. 42 sq.
Abgarsage kritisch untersucht, 29 Matth. XXVIII, 20.
Braunschweig 1880; J. Tixeront,
CHRIST A TRUE PROPHET 147
informs and vivifies her as the soul informs and actuates the body, and enables her to keep the deposit of faith
intact against all attempts at diminution or distortion.
Thus the infallibility of the Church and of her SupremePontiff ultimately rests upon the prophetic office of Christ
Himself, who is the infallible source and teacher of all
truth. 30
b) This explains why the Church participates in the
prerogatives of the prophetic office as exercised by herDivine Founder. As the faithful custodian of the depositof faith she teaches the whole truth. There is no higher
magisterium conceivable than hers. The "spiritual
church"
expected by the Montanists and the"
Johan-nine church "
imagined by some modern heretics are
pure figments. Christianity is the absolute religionand cannot be measured by the inadequate yardstick of
comparative science. The Catholic Church, through her
connexion with Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost, enjoysa truly divine authority, by which she proclaims with
infallible certainty the dogmas of faith and morals andcondemns heretical errors whenever the necessity arises.
Her anathemas are as truly binding on all men as her
dogmatic definitions. Finally, she is endowed with unlimited adaptability, which enables her to adjust herself to
all times and circumstances, provided they do not runcounter to the orthodox faith and the eternal principles of
true morality. No matter how times may change, the
Catholic Church, ever old and ever young, fills them with
her own spirit, overcomes error and sin, and directs all
legitimate efforts for the betterment of the race into their
divinely appointed channels. There is no error so novel,
SOCfr. P. J. Toner, art. "Infalli- art. "Unfehlbarkeit" in Herder s
bility" in the Catholic Encyclopedia, Kirchenlexikon, Vol. XII, pp. 240Vol. VII, pp. 790 sqq. ; J. Pohle, sqq.
148 OFFICES OF THE REDEEMER
no intellectual malady so grave that the Church is not
able to counteract it with antidotes from her spiritual
pharmacopoeia. Our own time furnishes a most instruc
tive exemplification of this truth. It is a period of
transition and fermentation. Pius X has vigorously
condemned the Modernistic errors endangering the faith,
and there is no doubt that they can be effectively warded
off if the nations will listen to the voice of Holy Mother
Church.31
31 Cfr. H. Pesch, S. J., Die soziale Befdhigung der Kirche, 3d ed.,
Berlin 1911.
CHAPTER III
CHRIST S KINGSHIP
i. DEFINITION OF THE TERM. The word
king (rex, /fodtAev?, ) denotes a sovereign invested
with supreme authority over a nation, countryor tribe.
a) Kingship includes three separate and distinct
functions: legislative, judiciary, and executive,
which together constitute the supreme power of
jurisdiction or government.
The royal dominium iurisdictionis must not be con
founded with what is known as the right of ownership
(dominium proprietatis). The latter is directed to the
possession of impersonal objects, while the former im
plies the governance of free persons or subjects. Thetwo differ both logically and in fact, and neither can be
directly deduced from the other. The ruling power of
a king or emperor by no means implies the possession
of property rights either in his subjects or their belong
ings. The subjects of a monarch are as free to possess
private property as the monarch himself, not to speak of
the right of personal liberty.
It may be well to observe, however, that these limi
tations apply to earthly kings only. God, being the Crea-
149
150 OFFICES OF THE REDEEMER
tor and Lord of the universe, is the absolute owner of all
things, including men and their belongings.1
b) The royal power with its various func
tions may be either secular or spiritual. Theformer is instituted for man s earthly, the latter
for his spiritual benefit. Christ s is a spiritual
kingdom, and will continue as such throughout
eternity. Holy . Scripture and the Church fre
quently liken His kingship to the office of a shep
herd, to emphasize the loving care with which Herules us and provides for our necessities.
2. CHRIST S EARTHLY KINGSHIP AS TAUGHTIN SACRED SCRIPTURE. Both the Old and the
New Testament represent our Lord Jesus Christ
as a true King, who descended upon this terres
trial planet to establish a spiritual kingdom. This
kingdom is the Catholic Church. Christ did not
come as a worldly monarch, but as "the bishopof our souls."
2
a) If we examine the Messianic prophecies of the
Old Testament we find the kingdom of Israel, or"
throne of David," represented as a type of the Messianic
kingdom that was to come. Cfr. 2 Kings VII, 12 sq. :
"
I will raise up thy [David s] seed after thee, which
shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish
his kingdom. He shall build a house [i. e., temple,
church] to my name, and I will establish the throne of
1 Cfr. Pohle-Preuss. God: His Knowability, Essence and Attributes,
pp. 286 sqq.
2 Cfr. i Pet. II, 25.
CHRIST A TRUE KING 151
his kingdom for ever." The same prediction is made
in Psalms II, XXX, XXXVII, XLV, LXXII, and CIX.
Isaias,3
Daniel,4 and Zacharias 5
depict the Messias in
glowing colours as a Ruler, as the Prince of peace and
the mighty General of a great army. These prophecies
were all fulfilled, though not in the manner anticipated
by the carnal-minded Jews. The Messias came as a
King, but not with the pomp of an earthly sovereign, nor
for the purpose of freeing the Jewish nation from the
yoke of its oppressors.
Nevertheless the New Testament hails the lowly in
fant born of the Blessed Virgin as a great King. Even
before his birth the Archangel informs His Mother that" The Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David
his father, and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for
ever."6 The wise men hurried to His manger from
the far East and anxiously inquired :
" Where is he
that is born king of the Jews ?" 7 Yet when, after the
miraculous multiplication of loaves, the Jews tried
to"
take him by force and make him king," Jesus"
fled again into the mountain himself alone."8 And
when, in the face of death, Pilate asked Him :
"
Art
thou a king then ?" He answered :
" Thou sayest
that I am a king."
9 After they had crucified Him,"
they put over his head his cause written : This is
Jesus the King of theJews."
10Sorely disappointed in
their worldly hopes, and still enmeshed in political am
bitions, the two disciples who went to Emmaus lamented :
" But we hoped, that it was he that should have redeemed
Israel.""
3 Is. IX, 6 sqq., u. 8 John VI, 15.
4 Dan. VII, 13 sqq. 9 John XVIII, 37-
5 Zach. IX. 10 Matth. XXVII, 37-
6 Luke I, 32 sq. 11 Luke XXIV, 21. Cfr. Acts I, 6.
7 Matth. II, 2.
152 OFFICES OF THE REDEEMER
b) This seeming contradiction between the OldTestament prophecies and the actual life of
our Lord Jesus Christ finds its solution in the
Church s teaching that His is a purely spiritual
kingdom. Cfr. Is. LX, 18 sqq.; Jer. XXIII, 5
sqq.; Ezech. XXXVII, 21 sqq. For the sake of
greater clearness, it will be advisable to separatethe quaestio iuris from the quaestio facti, andto treat each on its own merits.
a) The quaestio facti. Taking the facts as we knowthem, there can be no doubt that Christ never intended
to establish an earthly kingdom. He fled when the Jewsattempted to make him king.
12 He acknowledged the
Roman Emperor as the legitimate ruler of Palestine andcommanded the Jews to
"
render to Caesar the thingsthat are Caesar s, and to God the things that are God s."
1S
He consistently refused to interfere in secular affairs,
as when he said to the man who asked Him to ad
judicate a question of inheritance :
" Who hath appointed me judge, or divider, over you?"
14 And Heexpressly declared before Pilate :
15 "
My kingdom is
not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world,
my servants would certainly strive that I should not bedelivered to the Jews : but now my kingdom is not fromhence."
16
ft) The quaestio iuris. What first strikes us fromthe juridic point of view is : Did Christ merely refrain
from asserting His legal claim to secular kingship, or
12 John VI, 15. gia, thes. 138. For a critical refu-13 Matth. XXII, 21. tation of Loisy s errors see M.14 Luke XII, 14. Lepin, Christ and the Gospel (Eng-15 John XVIII, 36. lish tr.), Philadelphia 1910, espe-16 Cfr. Ferd. Stentrup, Soteriolo- ially pp. 475 sqq.
CHRIST A TRUE KING 153
had He no such ;claim, at least in actu primof Catholic
theologians agree that as"
the Son of David" Christ
possessed no dynastic title to the kingdom of Juda ; first,
because His Messianic kingdom extended far beyond the
limits of Palestine, in fact embraced the whole world;
and secondly, because neither the Blessed Virgin Marynor St. Joseph, though both descended from the
"
house
of David," had any hereditary claim to the throne which
had been irretrievably lost under Jechonias.17 There is
another point on which theologians are also of one mind.
By virtue of His spiritual kingship the Godman possesses
at least indirect power over all secular affairs, for else His
spiritual power could not be conceived as absolutely un
limited, which would have imperiled the purpose of the
Incarnation. This indirect power over worldly affairs is
technically known as potestas indirecta in temporalia.
Its counterpart is the potestas directa in temporalia,
and in regard to this there exists a long-drawn-out con
troversy among theologians. Gregory of Valentia and
Cardinal Bellarmine 18 hold that Christ had no direct
jurisdiction in secular or temporal matters, while
Suarez 19 and De Lugo20 maintain that He had. The
affirmative opinion appeals to us as more probable,
though the Scriptural texts marshalled in its favor byDe Lugo
21 cannot be said to be absolutely convincing.
These texts (Matth. XXVIII, 18; Acts X, 36; i Cor.
XV, 27; Apoc. I, 5 and XIX, 16) can be explained
partly by the doctrine of the communicatio idiomatum,22
partly by reference to our Lord s spiritual kingdom. De
Lugo s theological arguments, however, are very strong
17 Cfr. Jer. XXII, 30. 20 De Myst. Incarn., disp. 30, i.
18 De Rom. Pontifice, V, 4 sq. 21 L. c., n. 5.
19 De Myst. Vitae Christi, disp. 22 Cfr. Pohle-Preuss, Christology,
42, sect. 2. pp. 184 sqq.
154 OFFICES OF THE REDEEMER
indeed. Take this one, for example. Christ s direct
jurisdiction in matters temporal is based on the Hypo-static Union. On account of the Hypostatic Union His
sacred humanity was entitled to such excellencies and
prerogatives as the power of working miracles, the ful
ness of knowledge, the highest measure of the beatific
vision, the dignity of headship over all creatures,23
etc.
And it is but reasonable to conclude that there musthave been due to Him in a similar way that other pre
rogative which we may call kingship over all crea
tures.24 From this point of view it may be argued that
the theandric dignity of our Lord, flowing from the Hypostatic Union, gave Him an -imprescriptible claim to
royal power, so that, had He willed, He could have
deposed all the kings and princes of this world and con
stituted Himself the Head of a universal monarchy.Bellarmine s apprehension that this teaching might
exert a pernicious influence on the papacy, is absolutely
groundless. For, in the first place, Christ s vice-gerenton earth is not Christ Himself, and secondly, the pre
rogatives and powers enjoyed by our Lord, even those
of a purely spiritual nature, are not eo ipso enjoyed
by the Pope."
Christ was able to do many things in the
spiritual realm," rightly observes De Lugo,"
which the
Pope cannot do; for example, institute sacraments, con
fer grace through other than sacramental channels,
etc."25
These considerations also explain why Christ declared
Himself legally exempt from the obligation of payingtaxes and "
paid the didrachmas"
solely to avoid scan
dal.26
23 Cfr. Pohle-Pretiss, Christohgy, 25 L. c., n. n.
pp. 239 sqq. 26 Cfr. Matth. XVII, 23 sqq.24 De Lugo, /. c., n. 8.
CHRIST A TRUE KING 155
The question as to the property rights enjoyed by our
Divine Saviour may be solved by the same principlewhich we have applied to that of His temporal juris
diction. Vasquez was inconsistent in rejecting DeLugo s solution of the former problem after acceptinghis view of the latter.
27For, while it is perfectly true
that the Godman never laid claim to earthly goods, but
lived in such abject poverty that He literally"
had not
where to lay his head,"28
this does not argue that Hehad no legal right to acquire worldly possessions. Thesimple truth is that He had renounced this right for goodreasons.
It is an article of faith, defined by Pope John XXIIin his Constitution
"
Quum inter nonnullos," that Christ
actually possessed at least a few things as His personal
property.29
3. CHRIST S HEAVENLY KINGSHIP, OR THEDOGMA OF His ASCENSION AND SITTING AT THERIGHT HAND OF THE FATHER. The Resurrection of our Lord and His Descent into hell merelyformed the preliminaries of His kingly office. It
was by His glorious Ascension that He took for
mal possession of His royal throne in Heaven,which Holy Scripture describes as
"sitting at the
right hand of God." Both His Ascension andHis sitting at the right hand of God are fundamental articles of faith, as may be judged fromthe fact that they have been incorporated into the
Apostles Creed.
27 De Incarn., disp. 8?, cap. 6. Summa Theol., 33, qu. 40, art. 3.28 Luke IX, 58. Cfr. St. Thomas, 29 Denzinger-Bannwart, n. 494.
II
156 OFFICES OF THE REDEEMER
a) There is no need of entering into a detailed Scrip
tural argument to prove these dogmas. Our Lord Him
self clearly predicted His Ascension into Heaven,30 and
the prophecy was fulfilled in the presence of many wit
nesses. Mark XVI, 19: "And the Lord Jesus, after
He had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and
sitteth on the right hand of God."31
The argument from Tradition is copiously developed
by Suarez in the 5ist disputation of his famous treatise
De Mysteriis Vitae Christi.
Our Lord "
ascended by His own might," says the
Roman Catechism," and was not raised aloft by the
power of another, as was Elias, who went up in a
fiery chariot into heaven (4 Kings II, n), or as was
the prophet Habacuc (Dan. XIV, 35 sqq.), or Philip the
deacon (Acts VIII, 39), who, borne through the air
by the divine power, traversed far distant parts of the
earth. Neither did He ascend into heaven solely as
God, by the supreme power of the Divinity, but also
as man ;for although the Ascension could not have taken
place by natural power, yet that virtue with which the
blessed soul of Christ had been endowed, was capable
of moving the body as it pleased; and his body, now
glorified, readily obeyed the command of the actuating
soul. And thus we believe that Christ, as God and
man, ascended by His own power into heaven.":
The phrase,"
sitteth on the right hand of God," must
not, of course, be interpreted literally, since with God
there is neither right nor left. It is a figurative ex
pression, intended to denote the exalted station occupied
30 John VI, 63; XIV, i sqq.; rbv ovpavbv Kal eKadicrev e/c Seiu>*
XVI, 28. TOV 0eou.
si O (lev oi>v Kvpios lyaovs |Uera 32 Cat. Rom., P. I, c. 7, qu. 2.
T& \d\ijaai avrols dvrjXrj^et] eis Cfr. S. Thomas, S. Theol., 32, qu.
57 >
art. i.
CHRIST A TRUE KING 157
by our Lord in heaven,33 and also His calm, immutable
possession of glory and jurisdiction over the wholeuniverse.34 It is in His capacity of royal judge that
Jesus will one day reappear with great power and majesty
"
to judge the living and the dead."3S
b) The two dogmas under consideration haveboth a Christological and a Soteriological bearing.
a) From the Christological point of view our Saviour s
Ascension as well as His sitting on the right hand of
the Father signalize the beginning, or rather the con
tinuation, of the status e.valtationis, of which His Resurrection and Descent into hell were mere preludes. Hishumiliation (status exinanitionis) in the
"
form of a
servant,"36 His poverty, suffering, and death, made
way for an eternal kingship in Heaven. The truly
regal splendor of our Divine Redeemer during andafter His Ascension is more strongly emphasized in the
Apostolic Epistles than in the Gospels. In the Epistlesthe epithet
"
Lord "
(Dominus, 6 KU/CHOS) nearly alwaysconnotes royal dominion. Cfr. i Tim. VI, 15: "Who
is the Blessed and only Mighty, King of kings, and Lordof lords." It is only since His Ascension into Heaventhat Christ rules the universe conjointly with the Father,
though this joint dominion will not reach its highestperfection till the day of the Last Judgment, when all
creation will lie in absolute subjection"
under His feet."37
(3) From the Soteriological point of view it would be
wrong to represent Christ s Ascension (not to speak ofHis Resurrection and Descent into hell) as the total or
33 Cfr. Heb. I, 13. 36 Cfr. Pohle-Preuss, Christology,34 Cfr. Eph. I, 20 sqq. pp. 95 sq.35 Cfr. St. Thomas, S. Theol., 33, 37 Cfr. Eph. I, 22 sqq. ; Heb. II, 8.
qu. 58.
1 58 OFFICES OF THE REDEEMER
even partial cause (causa meritoria) of our Redemption.
The atonement was effected solely by the sacrifice of the
Cross. Nevertheless St. Paul writes :
"
Jesus ... en
tered . . . into heaven itself, that he may appear now in
the presence of God for us."38 In other words, He con
tinues to exercise His mediatorial office in Heaven.
How are we to understand this? St. Thomas explains
it as follows :
"
Christ s Ascension is the cause of our
salvation in a twofold way, first on our part, and sec
ondly on His. On our part, in so far as His Ascension
directs our minds to Him. ... On His part, in so far
as He ascended for our salvation, (i) to prepare for
us the way to Heaven, ... (2) because Christ entered
Heaven, as the High Priest entered the Holy of holies,
to make intercession for us;39
. . . (3) in order that,
seated as Lord God on the throne of Heaven, He
might thence send us divinegifts."
40 As is apparent
from the last-mentioned two points, Christ s kingship
is closely bound up with His priesthood. In fact it
may be said in a general way that the three functions
or offices of our Divine Redeemer are so closely inter
twined that they cannot be separated.
For the special benefit of canonists we would observe
that the threefold character of these functions furnishes
no adequate basis for the current division of the powerof the Church into potestas ordims, potestas magisterii,
and potestas iurisdictionis*1 The traditional division into
potestas ordinis and potestas iurisdictionis is the only
adequate and correct one from the dogmatic point of
view.42
38 VvV tfuJtavurOijvai TW irpoawiru 41 This division is employed by
TOV 6eou virep rj/Ji^v. Heb. IX, 24. Walter, Phillips, Richter, Hinschius,
39 Heb. VII, 25. and others.
405". TheoL, 33, qu. 57, art. 6. 42 Cfr. Scheeben, Dogmatik, Vol.
CHRIST A TRUE KING 159
4. CHRIST S KINGSHIP AS CONTINUED IN HisCHURCH ON EARTH. We have shown that our
Divine Redeemer did not claim secular or tem
poral jurisdiction. It follows a fortiori that the
Church which He has established is a purely
spiritual kingdom and must confine herself to the
government of souls.
a) The Catholic Church was not established as a polit
ical power. She represents that peaceful Messianic kingdom which was foreshadowed by the Old Testament
prophets and which the Prince of Peace founded with His
Precious Blood. Hence the hierarchical order displayedin the papacy, episcopate, priesthood, and diaconate, is
purely spiritual. Hence, too, the means of sanctification
which the Church employs (prayer, sacrifice, and the
sacraments) are of an exclusively spiritual character.
Christ, who was the King of Kings, did not disturb the
earthly monarchs of His time in their jurisdiction, and it
cannot be the mission of His Church to grasp at political
power or treat temporal rulers as her vassals. Hers
is a purely spiritual dominion for the sanctification of
souls.
Being God s kingdom on earth, the Church exists in
and for this world, but is not of it. The theory of a few
medieval canonists that she enjoys direct jurisdiction over
all nations and rulers, has no foundation either in
Sacred Scripture or in history. It is unevangelical for
the reason that Christ never claimed such power. It
is unhistorical because the"
donation of Constantine,"
on which it rests, is a fiction.43 This theory, which was
I, p. 67, Freiburg 1873; Cavagnis, 43 Cfr. L. Duchesne, The Begin-Instit. luris Publ. Ecclesiae, 4th ed., nings of the Temporal SovereigntyVol. I, p. 24, Rome 1906. of the Popes (English tr.), p. 120,
160 OFFICES OF THE REDEEMER
inspired by the imposing phenomenon of the Holy RomanEmpire, has never been adopted by the Church, nor is it
maintained by the majority of her theologians and canon
ists. The relation between Church and State still re
mains a knotty problem.44 Harnack seriously distorts the
truth when he says :
;
The Roman Church in this wayprivily pushed itself into the place of the Roman world-
empire, of which it is the actual continuation;the empire
has not perished, but has only undergone a transforma
tion. If we assert, and mean the assertion to hold goodeven of the present time, that the Roman Church is the
old Roman Empire consecrated by the Gospel, that is no
mere clever remark/ but the recognition of the true
state of the matter historically, and the most appropriateand fruitful way of describing the character of this
Church. It still governs the nations; its popes rule like
Trajan and Marcus Aurelius;Peter and Paul have taken
the place of Romulus and Remus;the bishops and arch
bishops, of the proconsuls; the troops of priests and
monks correspond to the legions; the Jesuits, to the im
perial body-guard. The continued influence of the old
Empire and its institutions may be traced in detail, downto individual legal ordinances, nay, even in the veryclothes. That is no church like the evangelical com
munities, or the national churches of the East; it is a
political creation, and as imposing as a world-empire,because the continuation of the Roman Empire."
45 The
possession of political power may be useful, nay, rela
tively speaking, necessary to insure to the Pope the free
and untrammelled exercise of his spiritual functions;but
London 1908; J. P. Kirsch in the * Das Wesen des Christentums,Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. V, pp. p. 157, Leipzig 1902 (English tr. :
118 sqq. What is Christianity? p. 270, 2nd44 Cfr. J. Pohle in Herder s Kir- ed., New York 1908).
chenlexikon, Vol. XII, 229 sqq.
CHRIST A TRUE KING 161
it does not enter into the essence of the papacy, which for
centuries has flourished without it and still commands the
highest respect in spite of its spoliation by the Italian
government.
b) The Church exercises a truly royal domin
ion over the souls of men, and hence must be enti
tled to all the prerogatives of a spiritual kingship.
That is to say, within the limits of her divinely or
dained constitution, she possesses legislative as
well as judicial power over her members, includ
ing the executive right of inflicting punishment.46
There can be no exercise of judicial power with
out the power of compulsion (potestas coactiva s.
vindicativa) and it is, moreover, a formally de
nned dogma that the Church possesses this
power.47
The penalties which she is authorized to inflict are,
of course, predominantly spiritual (penitential acts, ec
clesiastical censures, and especially excommunication).48
But she can also impose temporal and bodily punish
ments (poenae temporales et corporales). We know
that she has exercised this power, and it would be temera
rious to deny that she possesses it.40
Has the Church also the power to put malefactors
to death (ins gladii) ? Canonists are not agreed on
this point, though all admit that if the Church decides
to inflict the death penalty, the sentence must be carried
46Cfr. Matth. XVI, 19; XVIII, 48 Cfr. i Cor. IV, 21; V, 5; *
15 sqq. Cor. XIII, i sq. ; i Tim. I, 20.
47 Cfr. Denzinger-Bannwart, En- 49 Cfr. Bouix, De ludic., Vol. I,
chiridion, n. 499, 640, 1504 sq. p. 66, Paris 1855.
i6a. OFFICES OF THE REDEEMER
out by the secular power (brachium saeculare), because it
would be unbecoming for the Spouse of Christ to stain
her hands with blood, even if a deadly crime had been per
petrated against her.
It is a historical fact that the Church has never pronounced (much less, of course, executed) the death sen
tence or claimed the right to inflict it. Whenever, in
the Middle Ages, she found herself constrained to pronounce judgment for a crime which the secular powerwas wont to punish by death (e. g. voluntary and obsti
nate heresy), she invariably turned the culprit over to
the State. The cruel practice of burning heretics has
fortunately ceased and will never be revived.
Regarded from the standpoint of religious principle,
the question of the ins gladii is purely academic. Thegreat majority of canonists seem to hold that the Churchdoes not possess the right of inflicting capital punishment.The contrary teaching of Tarquini and De Luca 50 has
occasioned much unfavorable criticism, and Cavagnisundoubtedly voices the conviction of most contemporarycanonists when he says
51 that the so-called ius gladii hasno solid basis either in Scripture or Tradition. Our Divine Redeemer did not approve the infliction of capital
punishment,52
nay, He restrained His followers from
inflicting bodily injury.53
St. Paul, in spite of his sever
ity, never took recourse to any but spiritual measures.The great Pope Nicholas I said :
" God s holy Churchhas no other sword than the spiritual ;
she does not kill,
she dispenses life."54 Her kingdom is purely spiritual,
BO Inst. Juris EccL PubL, Vol. I, 53 Cfr. Matth. XXVI, 52.
pp. 261 sqq., Rome 1901. ^"Sancta Dei Ecclesia gladium51 Inst. luris PubL EccL, 4th ed., non habet nisi spiritualem, non occi-
Vol. I, pp. 190 sqq., Rome 1906. dit, sed vivificat." (Deer. Grat., c.
52 Cfr. Luke IX, 53 sqq. 6, causa 33, qu. 2.)
CHRIST A TRUE KING 163
and hence she must leave the infliction of capital punishment to the secular power.
55
The most determined opponent of the Church s
royal office is modern Liberalism, which employsall the powers of civil government to obstruct
the exercise of her spiritual jurisdiction or to
circumscribe that jurisdiction as narrowly as pos
sible. Among the means invented for this pur
pose are the so-called ius circa sacra, the appella-
tio tamquam ab abusu and the placetum re-
giitm,57
in a word the whole iniquitous systemknown in English-speaking countries as Csesaro-
papism or Erastianism 58 and based on the per
nicious fallacy that the State is supreme in
ecclesiastical affairs.
READINGS :* St. Thomas, Summa Theologica, 33, qu. 22, and
the Commentators. A. Charre, Le Sacrifice de I Homme-Dieu,Paris 1899. *V. Thalhofer, Das Opfer des Alien und Neuen
Bundes, Ratisbon 1870. IDEM, Die Opferlehre des Hebrder-
briefes, Dillingen 1855. W. Schenz, Die priesterliche Tatigkeit
des Messias nach detn Propheten Isaias, Ratisbon 1892. J.
Grimal, Le Sacerdoce et le Sacrifice de Ncrtre Seigneur Jesus-
Christ, Paris 1908.* Fr. Schmid, Christus als Prophet, nach
den Evangelien dargestellt, Brixen 1892. Tanner, S. J., Cruen-
tum Christi Sacrificium, Incruentum Missae Sacrificium Expli-
55 Cfr. A. Vermeersch, S. J., otic Encyclopedia, Vol. I, pp. 650
Tolerance (tr. by W. H. Page), pp. sqq.
58 sqq., London 1913; J. Pohle, art. 57 Cfr. S. Luzio in the Catholic
"Toleration" in the Catholic Ency- Encyclopedia, s. v. "Exequatur,"
clopedia, Vol. XIV; J. Keating, S.VoL V pp " 7 7 sq
J., in The Month, No. 582, pp. 60758 On the true meani
"gof this
loosely used term see B. Ward in
56 Cfr. R. L. Burtsell in the Cath-the Catholi < E cycl
t>*di
<>>
Vol. V.pp. 514 sqq.
164 OFFICES OF THE REDEEMER
catum, Prague 1669. B. Bartmann, Das Himmelreich und sein
Kdnig nach den Synoptikern, Paderborn 1904. A. J. Maas, S. J.,
Christ in Type and Prophecy, 2 vols., New York 1893-5. M.
Lepin, Christ and the Gospel, or Jesus the Messiah and Son of
God, Philadelphia 1910. Wilhelm-Scannell, A Manual of Cath
olic Theology, Vol. II, pp. 196-207, 2nd ed., London 1901. W.
Humphrey, S. J., The One Mediator, pp. 1-41, London s. a.
Other authorities quoted in the foot-notes.
INDEX
Abelard, 54.
Berruyer, 67.
Beza, 92.
Blavatsky, Madame, 44.
Adam, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 33, 40, Body of Christ, Glorified, 10542, 49 sq.
Adamantius, 52.
sq.
Bonaventure, St., 26 sq.
Adequacy of the atonement, 60 Books, Why Christ wrote na,
sqq. 145 sq.
Adoration, 112. Bougaud, 31.
"At5>7s 92 sqq.
yEons, 6.
Albert the Great, 30.
Alexander VIII, 78.
Ambrose Catharinus, 31.
Ambrose, St., 29, 135 sq.
Angels, 16 sq., 33 sq., 80 sq.
Anselm, St., 21, 54, 55.
AvrtXvTpov, 62.
Apocatastasis, 80.
Appellatio tamquam ab abusn, Capreolus,
163.
Ascension, Christ s, 155 sqq.
Athanasius, St., 15, 29.
Csesaropapism, 163.
Calvin, 10 sq., 75, 91, 92, 94.
Calyinists, 123.
Capital punishment, Has theChurch the right to inflict
it? 161 sqq.
Cayagnis, 162.
Child, Why Christ came into
the world as a, 17 sq.
Atonement, Vicarious, 35 sqq.; Christ, Our Mediator, 7 sqq;
Properties of, 60 sqq. ;Real- His Incarnation, 13 sqq. ;
Why He assumed a humanrather than an angelic na
ture, 16 sqq. ; Why He cameinto the world as a child,
17 sq. ; Gained merits for us,
56 sq. ;When ? 57 sq. ;
Theprincipal object of His meritorious actions, 58 sq. ;
Adequacy of His atonement, 60
sqq. ; Superabundance there
of, 70 sqq. ;Died for all the
faithful, 75 sqq.; Died for
all men, 77 sqq.; His deathon the crass, 85 sqq.; His
ization of, 84 sqq.
Augustine, St., 10, 16, 21, 22,
29, 33, 42, 53, 67, 79, 82, 93,
95, 124 sq.
B
Bajus, 73.
Baptism, 103.
Baptism of Christ, 129.
Barnabas, Epistle of, 121.
Bellarmine, 153, 154.
Bernard of Clairvaux, St.,
Bernard of Siena, 31.
53-
165
i66 INDEX
descent into hell, 91 sqq. ;
His Resurrection, 101 sqq.;His priesthood, ill sqq., 127
sqq.; His intercession for usin Heaven, 135 sqq.; His
prophetical office, 140 sqq.;His kingship, 149 sqq. ; HisAscension and sitting at the
right hand of the Father, 155
sqq.
Christus, 129.
Chrysostom, St. John, 71.
Church, The Catholic, 146 sqq.,
159 sqq.Clement VI, 74-
Clement of Rome, St., 51.
Congruity of the Redemption,13 sqq.
Constantine, Donation of, 159.
Cross, 85 sqq.; Sacrifice of the
114 sqq.
Cyril of Jerusalem, St., 71.
D
Damascene, St. John, 16.
Dante, 98.
David, 153-
Death of Christ, 85 sqq., insqq.
De Luca, 162.
Deluge, 100 sq.
De Luga, 26, 153 sqq.
Demiurge, 6.
De Rada, 63.Descent into hell, Christ s, 91
sqq.
Devil, Role of the, in the In
carnation, 51 sqq.
Diekamp, Fr. 80.
Dominus, 157.
Dorholt, B., 21, 41.Du Cappucce, 31.
Duns Scotus, 30, 63.
Durandus, 91.
Ephesus, Third General Council of, 44 sq., 116.
Erastianism, 163.
Eternity of Christ s priesthood,133 sqq.
Expiation, 112, 121.
Faber, F. W., 31.Francis de Sales, St., 31.
Franzelin, 66.
Frassen, 63.
Funke, B., 21.
Gnosticism, 41, 43 sq.
Gcrttschalk, 77.
Gregory of Nazianzus, 52.
Gregory of Nyssa, St., 52.
Gregory of Valentia, 26, 66,
153-
Grotius, Hugo, 51.
II
Harnack, 55, 160.
Hell, Christ s descent into, 91sqq.
Henno, 63.
Hierarchy, 159.
Holy Orders, 146.
Holy Raman Empire, 160.
Homo gloriosus, 26, 30.Homo passibilis, 26, 30.
Hypostatic Union, 14, 22, 63,
65, 74, 123, 129, 133, 139, 144,
154-
Imitation of Christ, 144.
Impeccantia, 42.
Incarnation, The, 13 sqq., 19,21 sq., 25 sqq., 127 sq.
Inf.eriores partes terrae, 93.
Infernutn, 94.Infinite value of Christ s atone
ment, 72.
Innocent X, 76.
Irenaeus, St., 52, 93.
Isaias, 45 sqq., 131, 141 sq.
INDEX 167
Jus circa sacra, 163.Ius gladii, 161 sqq.
Jansenists, 79.
Jansenius, 75 sq.
Janssens, L., 26.
Jewish sacrifice, 117 sq.
John XXII, 155.
John the Baptist, 143.
Joseph, St., 153.
Judge, Christ the royal, 157.
Jurisdiction of the Church,
T!S9 sq.
Justification, 103.
K
Kenosis, 20.
King, 149 sq.
"King of the Jews," 151.
Kingship, Christ s, 149 sqq.
Kleutgen, 26.
Last Judgment, 157.Last Supper, 132.
Lateran, Fourth Council of
the, 91.Leo IX, 104.
Lessius, 17, 26, 33.
Leibniz, 19.
Liberalism, 163.<
Limbo, Speculations regardingthe location of, 98.
Limbus patrum, 91 sq., 94, 95.
Limbus puerorum, 96 sqq.
Logos, 6, 24.
Luke, St., 143.
Lull, Raymond, 19.
Lutheranism, 40.
Magisterium, The ecclesiasti
cal, 146 sqq.
Malebranche, 19.
"Man of Sorrows," 131.
Martyrdom not a true sacrifice,126.
Mary B. V., 153.
Mass, 116, 132, 146.
Mastrius, 64.
Mediator, 5 sqq.Mediator naturalis, 7.
Mediator per gratiam, 7.
Mediatorship, 5 sqq.
Melchisedech, 127, 130, 131 sq.
Merit, 55 sqq.Merits of Christ, 56 sqq.Meritum de condigno, 56.Meritum de congruo, 56.
Messias, 141.
Milton, 98.
Modernism, 50, 148.
Monophysitism, 122, 123.
Montanism, 147.Mosaic sacrifices, 117 sqq.
Moses, 141, 142, 145.
N
Necessity of the Redemption,18 sqq.
Nestorianism, 122, 123.Nicholas I, 162.
Nominalists, 61.
Offices of the Redeemer, nosqq.
_
Optimism, 19 sq.Ordination to the priesthood,
Christ s, 127 sqq.
Origen, 52, 80.
Origenism, 104."Our Father," The, 43.
Pantheism, 41.
Paraclete, 136 sq.
Passion, Christ s, 72, 86 sqq.
Paul, St., 38, 48, 50, 76, 79, 103,
105, 118 sqq., 128 sq., 130,
131 .sq., 134, 138, 144, 162.
Pelagianism, 41 sqq.Pell, G. A., 41.
i68 INDEX
Perfection of the atonement,Intrinsic, 60 sqq. ; Extrinsic,75 sqq.
Pesch, Chr., 26.
Petavius, 26, 77, 136 sq.
Peter, St., 99 sq.
Pfleiderer, 55.
Pilate, 151, 152.Pius V, 73.Pius X, 148.Placetum regium, 163.
Plato, 95.
Polycarp, St., 51.
Pope, 154.Potestas coactiva of the
Church, 161.
Poverty of Christ, 155.
Prayers of Christ, 132 sq.Precious Blood, 48 sq., 61 sq.,
88.
Predestinarianism, 75 sqq.
Predestination, 75.Predestination of the Redeemer, 24 sqq.
Priest, Christ a true, in sqq.,
127 sqq.Priesthood of Christ, in sqq.,
127 sqq.
Prophet, Christ as a, 140 sqq.
Prosper of Aquitaine, 79.
Punishment, The Church s
right to inflict, 161.
Purgatory, 94, 95 sq.
R
Rationalism, 38, 41 sqq., 115.Reatus culpae, 36.
Reatus poenae, 36, 37.
Redemption, Congruity of the,
13 sqq. ; Necessity of the, 18
sqq.; A free gift of God, 20sqq.; Predestination of the,
24 sqq.; Through Christ s
vicarious atonement, 35 sqq.Resurrection, The, 101 sqq.Richard of St. Victor, 21.
Rigor iustitiae, 66, 69.
Risi, 31.
Riviere, J., 52.
Rupert of Deutz, 30.
Sacrifice, in sqq.
Sacrifice, Bloody, in sqq.Sacrificial act, Christ s, 125 sq.
Satisfaction, 35 sqq., 55 sqq., 60sqq.
Schell, 31.
Schqulza, P., 137 sq.
Scotists, 25 sq., 30 sqq., 61,
63 sq.Second Person of the Trinity,Why did He become incarnate? 15 sq.
"Servant of God," 46 sq.
Shepherd, Christ our, 150.Sin, Grievous, 36 sq.
Sitting at the right hand ofGod the Father, 155 sqq.
Socinianism, 38, 42 sq., 51, 115,
123, 130, 131, 137.
Socmus, Faustus, 42, 138.
Socinus, Laelius, 42.
Socrates, 88, 95, 144.
Sprinkling of the blood of
Christ, 88.
Stancarus, Francis, 123.Status exaltationis, 157.Status exinanitionis, 157.
Stentrup, 26.
Suarez, 22, 31, 33, 61, 66, 69,
7i, 156.
Tanner, 66.
Tarquini, 162.
Teacher, Christ as a, 140 sqq.Temporal power of the papacy,
160 sq.
Tepe, 20.
Teresa,_ St., 90.
Tertullian, 80, 93, 121 sq.
Thalhofer, 137 sq., 139.
Theosophy, 41, 44.
Thomas, St., On the functionsof mediatorship, 8; On the
mystery of the Incarnation,14 sq. ; On the motive of the
Incarnation, 26 sq. ;On the
infinity of grievous sin, 36;
INDEX 169
On the scope of Christ s
merits, 59; On the dignity of
Christ s flesh, 72 ;On the ne
cessity of Christ s Passion,
72 sq. ; On the universalityof the atonement, 82 sq. ;
Onthe congruity of Christ s
death on the cross, 88 sq. ;
On His descent into hell, 96;On sacrifice, 114; On the
priesthood, 139; On the question why Christ confined His
personal activity to one particular time and country,145 ;
On the question whythie Redeemer taught cmly byword of mouth, 145 sq. ; OnChrist s Ascension, 158.
Thomassin, 136 sq.
Thomists, 26 sqq., 64 sq.
Toledo, Eleventh Council of,106 sq.
Toleration, 163.
Toletus, Card., 26, 29.
Tournely, 21, 138.
Tradition, 145 sq.
Trent, Council of, 45, 56, 58, 78,
81, 85, 116, 124, 130.
Triumph over hell, Christ s 95.
U
Unction of Christ, 127 sqq.
"Unigenitus," Bull, 73 sq.
Universality af the atonement,75 sqq.
Vasquez, 26, 136 sq., 155.Vicarious atonement, 35 sqq.
Properties of, 60 sqq.Voluntas salvifica, 75, 82, 97.
WWyclif, 18 sq.
Ysambert, 31.
Zill, L., 137, 138.
Zwinglians, 123.
s ? 7^/ W L. I
BT 775 .P713 1913 SMCPohle, Joseph,Soteriology 47159735